A Mortal In Camp Half-Blood
by BornAsTheSeventhMonthDies
Summary: What chaos ensues when I, Sander, a mortal, find Camp? What ancient evil is rising? What favorite author's gone crazy? Read here to find out! Part of my Jake Universe. *PLEASE DON'T READ THIS, IT'S ABSOLUTE TRASH, I'M GOING TO REWRITE IT*
1. Prologue

**Helloooooooo everybodeeeeee!**

 **Please don't hurt me for this. I will explain the reason why I have had the audacity to publish a whole 'nother freaking story. In ten seconds.**

 **Here we go. This story was written already, okay? And finished.**

 **But I realized something: When I published it,** ** _no one cared_** **! I puzzled over this for a bit (because personally, I like this one,) and it came to me: The chapters were** ** _too f***ing long_** **!**

 **Seriously. This whole, rather long story, was composed of three – yes, that's right, three – chappies. Ugh. I had no sense of** ** _style_** **.**

 **So, after a few months of nail-biting and head-scratching, I took the story down. Then fixed it up, shortened the chapters, and here it is!**

 **Okay. There's the description. (Was that ten seconds? I think it was.)**

 **Next: an explanation. You may see, throughout my stories archive, the words: 'Part of my Jake Universe', and wonder what that means. Well, wonder no more, for the beginning of that treasured series begins here! This story is not AU, neither are the other ones (as far as FanFiction can go, obviously. I mean, at some point, all of these stories are totally AU and OOC,) but they all fit together to create: my Jake Universe!**

 **Yaaaaay! *confetti***

 **Just have that in mind. And yes, this story is about me. In the story I'm older than I am now (there's a clue, Ruby, as to how old I am), and I'm probably a bit buffer, but other than that: that's what I'm like. #makingfriends**

 **Anyway, carry on, have fun, and enjoy the tale! It's pretty awesome (in my opinion), and the ending works perfectly for my Days of Future Past! Accidentally. Seriously. I didn't even mean to.**

 **Lastly: danisnotonfire is the greatest thing to happen to the earth since Rick Riordan. If you've never heard of him, nor seen one of his videos… *makes cross with fingers* *backs away slowly***

 ** _Get the f*** out! You disgust me!_**

 **Survive!**


	2. This Whole Thing Starts

My name is Jake Sander. This is the true story of how I, a mortal, found Camp Half-Blood.

I've read and re-read and re-re-read the Senior Scribe's stories of the Camp. And I've loved them for years. Then my parents died in a freak car explosion on the 91 in California. I was an 'orphan', though I was sixteen, and I decided to travel cross-country, hitchhiking and walking, to try to find some way of surviving.

I was not poor. Even before my parents' money was divided, I had saved a few thousand dollars in my bank account. Then I received a few more thousand in their will. Any and all saleable things I received I sold, and then with that money _in cash_ , a change of clothes, a first-aid kit, and a laser pointer (one of the really strong ones,) I began to travel across America.

Now, this story is not about my journey, but I will speak of a few minor things that led me to realize Riordan's stories were true:

In Utah, I came across, or rather, came across me, a group of huge men. They attacked me, but being smaller and faster, I managed to evade them until a pickup came along.

The driver was slightly drunk, just enough not to notice me jump into the flatbed. This truck took me a good 180 miles east. When the truck began to enter a more populated area, I jumped out, and slept for the night.

But as I continued my journey the next morning, I realized: I had looked into their faces, but I could not remember what their _eyes_ looked like.

Another thing that happened was this, as I was walking through Ohio, a trio of people attacked me. They seemed to be women, their hair covered firmly. But they seemed to slide on their feet like they were beginners on ice skates.

I avoided these people, since their strange way of walking slowed them down just enough for me to find a pole dropped out of a truck. I fought them off for a few minutes, and then a caravan of black vans pulled along the road.

They stopped in a circle around the three women and I. Some seventy people poured out of the vans, and in no time at all the women were destroyed. I didn't see what happened, though. The people blocked my view, and when I could see again the women were gone.

One of the people, a boy of seventeen or eighteen, came toward me.

"Who are you?" I asked, understandably.

"My name is…" he looked back at the group. "Uh, my name is…Jason."

"I am Jake Sander," I said. "Thank you for…doing whatever it is you did."

He seemed unsure of what to say next. "Um, yes, well…Hazel!" he called. "Hazel, could you come here."

Another girl came over, probably the same age, holding hands with another boy.

"This is Hazel…" Jason said, then paused and whispered something in her ear. She nodded. "Hazel Levesque," Jason continued. "And this is Frank."

I almost passed out. Hazel Levesque. Frank Zhang, obviously. And Jason Grace. This was the caravan taking the Romans to Camp Jupiter…but no. This was much later than that. And they were going…east…

Hazel was saying something. "…you're okay?"

"Um, yes," I said. "They didn't hurt me."

"Alright." She said. "Now look at me…"

I did.

She snapped her fingers. "None of this happened." She said. "When we drive away, you have no memory of any of this."

She was using the Mist! No, no. If I forgot…

She stopped. Frank and Jason looked at me, waiting for something.

Then Jason said something to Frank that I didn't hear. Frank shrugged. "Where are you going?" he asked me.

I decided to say where I really was going, if the Mist could be avoided. "Camp Half-Blood," I said.

Jason jumped. "Camp…Half-Blood? Where's that?"

"In Long Island," I said. I didn't have a plan, at the moment, of what to say next. Looking back, I probably should have told them how _much_ I knew. How much Rick Riordan had given away.

Jason asked Hazel something. She said, "As soon as we drive away."

"Are you a demigod?" Jason asked me.

Now I was stuck. If I said 'yes', they would soon find out I wasn't. If I said 'no', they would drive away.

"Yes," I said.

Jason glanced at Hazel.

"Who's your godly parent?" he asked me.

Whoever I said, now, they would expect me to show some of that god's power.

I thought of my best talents. There weren't too many. I enjoyed playing the guitar, but not on a son-of-Apollo level. I can sort of write a story, but there's no god of writing, as far as I know. I can fight, but a two-year-old son or daughter of Ares would beat me into the ground.

I crossed out Demeter, Athena, Hephaestus, and Nemesis… Am I lucky? You could say that.

"Tyche," I said. "Goddess of luck."

He stared at me for a few minutes. Did I take too long to answer?

"Do you have any powers?" he asked.

"I'm fairly…I mean, very lucky," I said, hoping he wouldn't test me.

Of course I was wrong.

He pulled out a drachma. "Heads or tails?" he asked.

"Heads," I said. He flipped it. It landed Zeus-side-up.

He asked me again, flipped it, and I was right. Twice more, and each time Tyche really did favor me.

He looked at me for a few seconds. "Frank, hand me a pack," he said. Frank reached into his backpack and pulled out a…deck of cards.

"Pick a card," Jason said.

I thought. "Seven of clubs," I said, mentally promising to sacrifice an extremely large amount of food to Tyche.

He drew a card, and looked at it. Then he looked at the deck's faces.

Then he looked at me. I tried not to let my feelings show. He shuffled the card back into the deck.

"Get in the car, Jake," he said.


	3. Luck of the Gods

We drove east for a day. I tried to make myself small, but it didn't work. Apparently a son of Tyche was rare. Demigods (and legacies) kept coming up to me and asking questions. Sports teams, stocks, fights with monsters, anything, they would ask me who would win. I hoped Tyche would have pity on all of us. I answered what I thought, but I don't know what happened, or what they did with my answers.

On the second day, Jason came up to me at a rest stop. "Hey, Sander," he said.

"Yes sir," I answered.

"Don't 'sir' me. What I wanted to show you – well, two things, actually. First, we're a few hours from camp. Second – "

He pulled the deck of cards out of his pocket. "Look," he said. "You picked right. It was the seven of clubs. Thing is, it was a trick deck."

He handed me the deck. I looked at it. He was right. All the cards were the same.

"So," he said. "I'm not sure about this. Of course, this isn't the only test we have for demigods. But I don't know whether to say you're very lucky to pick the one card in the deck, or whether it doesn't count because it's a trick deck."

He waited, as if he expected me to say something. I didn't.

"You know," he said. "Mortals can't get through the camp borders."

I waited. "And," he said. "If they try, they are destroyed."

Now, I'm sure he expected me to run screaming away, begging for mercy. But I knew that what he said wasn't true. Rick Riordan had said mortals could get through if they were given permission.

And, what's more, demigods also needed permission for the first time they entered camp. So they would give me permission anyway, since they knew I had never been there before.

But the question in my mind was: Was I willing to trust Rick, enough to trust him with my life, over what Jason said?

Yes. I believed everything he said.

Jason shrugged, as if reading my mind. "Just warning you," he said, and walked away.

* * *

When we were within sight of Camp Half-Blood, Jason told me. We drove up slowly. The demigod on lookout was a young boy, probably only twelve or thirteen.

He jumped down from the tree. Jason waved, and he came over to our car.

"We've got a first-timer in here," Jason told the boy. "Son of Tyche. Jake Sander." I nodded to him.

"All right," the lookout said. "In the name of Zeus and Olympus, I give you, Jake Sander, permission to enter Camp Half-Blood."

"Thanks," Jason said, and we drove through.

I winced as we passed the magical boundary, marked lightly on the ground in white paint, but nothing happened. Jason watched me, but said nothing.

We came out into a field. We stopped the car.

And I was in the land of fantasy. The land of my dreams.

* * *

We came into the main area, where we saw the demigods going about their business. Cabins were being built right and left. The original cabin plan was completely over looked. Different half-bloods mixed in with our group, looking for their friends. I looked for some of the Seven, but other than Jason, Frank, and Hazel I couldn't see anyone.

Then I saw Percy Jackson. He was practicing in the arena, swordfighting with an Ares camper. Within a few seconds, the Ares camper was disarmed and had gotten a new cut on his arm.

Percy turned toward us. Seeing me, he waved. I waved back. The hero of Olympus, right in front of me…Incredible.

He hurried toward us. "So, you've got a new camper, Jace?"

Jason nodded. "He's a son of Tyche."

Percy smiled. "Luck goddess? Oh yes, baby."

 _Please don't_ , I thought.

And… "Who's gonna win the super bowl…whatever your name is."

"I'm Jake Sander," I said. "I don't really know who will win…My powers are more that I'm lucky."

"Lucky, huh?" Percy said, still grinning. "Jace, I'm gonna take him for a sec. See you at dinner!"

Percy pulled me toward the woods. "How lucky are you?" he asked. "Like, for instance, if I send you into the Ant Hill, will you survive?"

I froze. "No, no, lucky just on coin tosses and such. Not for avoiding death…"

He laughed. "Don't worry, it's not the anthill. Something way better."

I didn't know whether that meant safer or more dangerous. He pulled me toward Bunker 9, the Hephaestus 'secret' base.

He pointed to the closed and locked door. "Okay, Jake," he said. "See the keypad? Leo set it up so the code changes every time. He and the rest of the Hephaestus cabin have chips that can tell them the passcode. What you gotta do is…break in."

"Why?" I asked.

He grinned again. "Cause knowing Leo, a locked door means something good's on the other side."

I stepped to the keypad. My fingers went to the buttons.

"Percy?" I asked. "Does anything happen if you get it wrong?"

He was silent.

"Percy?"

"Um…no one's tried it yet."

"But you know what happens."

Silence.

"Percy!"

"Yeah, well…Leo set a trap, he said, but Leo wouldn't do anything to really hurt someone."

I wasn't so sure. I hesitated. Then a word flashed into my mind. 'Ogygia'. Calypso's famous hidden Island, where Leo went twice, and brought her back from. I typed it in.

A computerized voice said, "Welcome to the Leo Cave."

The bronze door swung open.

We walked in.

* * *

Bunker 9 was filled with machinery, half-assembled pieces of somethings, and weapons, and tools, and pretty much everything you would expect.

But then Percy saw what we were looking for. A huge glass case, a few inches thick, surrounded a little…something. It looked like nothing more than a thumb drive with a button on the side.

Percy brought out Riptide and cut cleanly through the glass. The two halves of the case fell to the ground and shattered. Alarms blared.

Percy yelped. "Okay, don't know what this is, but it's important."

We ran.

All around us, automatons came to life. One after another, their eyes changed from yellow to red, and they all said, "Destroy. Destroy. Destroy. Destroy…"

Percy pointed the thumb drive at one of them. "I hope this is a weapon!" he yelled, and pressed the button. A red blast of energy came from the device, hitting the human-shaped automaton clean in the face. The blast blew its head right off its body, and it collapsed to the ground.

We kept running, Percy pausing occasionally to kill another robot. He fired again at the closed doors ahead of us, and blew them right off their hinges. The robots behind us started shooting lines of electricity, zapping everything, including some off their own. Luckily, none of the bolts hit us. We dashed outside, and toward the cabins.

I followed him into his room. He slammed the door shut and we collapsed on the ground. He gave me a tired thumbs up, out of breath. Along with four golden drachma.

I looked out the window. One of the Hephaestus kids had somehow stopped the automatons, and sent them back to Bunker 9. Leo was doing a little dance of anger.

Percy shrugged. "This thing's useless to me right now," he said. "And I wouldn't want Leo to bust a socket."

I looked outside again. Leo was now literally blazing. The other campers were backing away from him. Then a girl, Calypso, came out of the Big House and started calming him down.

"Wow," Percy said. "Never seen him that mad before."

He walked outside when Leo's fire was out.

"Hey Leo," he said.

"What?" Leo growled.

"What's the matter?"

Leo jumped up in the air like he'd been stung. "What's the matter? _What's the matter?_ My Leo Cave's been ruined. Automatons damaged! Stuff destroyed, stuff to fix, doors to buy! When I catch those Stolls, I'm gonna—"

"Did you lose this?" Percy said, holding out the weapon.

Leo grabbed it out of his hands. "Where did you get it?"

"Well…erm…we found it. Jake and I. Mostly Jake."

"Who stole it? Who'd you get it from? I'M GONNA KILL THEM!"

"Uh…it was a…it was…"

Leo stared at him. Then his eyes narrowed. He summoned a ball of fire into his hand.

"Percy Jackson, did you steal this Valdezblaster?"

Percy stopped. " _Valdezblaster?_ "

"Did you dare…did you even dare…"

Percy turned and ran. When he was a few yards away, Leo threw the fireball. It hit Percy's feet. He yelled and ran in the direction of the creek.

Leo stared after him for a minute, then started cracking up. He even fell onto his hands and knees, and laughed and laughed.

When he finished, he held out his hand. "Leo Valdez."

I shook it. "Jake Sander."

"Son of -?"

"Tyche."

"Ooh, lucky." He grinned.

"Hey, can you tell me –"

A bell sounded from the Big House. I didn't remember that from the stories. "What's that bell?" I asked.

"Intruders in the camp," Leo said, looking serious. He took off in the direction of the Big House. I followed.

We came up at the Big House with the rest of the camp. Chiron galloped onto the porch.

"Invaders!" he shouted. "Two, on Half-Blood Hill! A son of Hecate and a demigod man!"

He took off, followed by the Hecate, Ares, and Athena cabins. The rest of the campers trickled back to the cabins, grumbling. Two invaders? This was not a bell-worthy attack. I followed Chiron.

We came up to the hill. Already, two Ares campers were fighting the half-blood. Another one was lying on the ground. The son of Hecate seemed familiar, though I couldn't tell why. The man was standing behind him, doing nothing.

The Ares campers went on both sides of the enemy demigod. One of them swung his sword. The boy – twenty-ish – blocked the swing with his sword. He spun and held out his hand to the other camper. The camper was knocked back like he'd been punched hard, spun, put his hand to his face, and rolled down the hill. The enemy snapped his fingers, and a bolt of electricity blasted the last Ares camper in the chest. He collapsed.

The son of Hecate straightened. He looked at Chiron.

"Greetings," he said. "I am Alabaster, son of Hecate."


	4. He's The Magic Man

I remembered him from Riordan's book The Demigod Diaries. This was the son of Hecate who'd led his siblings against Olympus in the first Great War.

But no one else seemed to remember him. The Ares cabin charged up the hill.

He waited. Then he shouted, "Blazare!"

A wave of fire swept over the campers. Naiads from the lake rushed up and put the campers out, but they were all pretty badly burned.

The Athena campers were talking to each other. Then one of them said, "Alright. Hecate, split into two teams, go around both sides of the hill. Don't hold back, hit him with everything you've got."

Lou Ellen, the senior counselor for Hecate, nodded. She started counting off teams.

They split up and went around both sides of the hill. Alabaster didn't seem worried at all. He just stood at the top of the hill, smiling, watching his half-siblings prepare to kill him. Then they attacked.

They charged up the hill, some throwing potions, some shouting spells, and I noticed Lou Ellen stop halfway up and close her eyes. She was concentrating on the spell she would cast. Alabaster spun and dodged, blocking spells with spells, shattering potion vials with his sword. Sometimes he called out an attacking spell, but for half a minute all he did was defend.

Then Lou Ellen shouted a spell, Alabaster shouted back – and every Hecate camper on the top of the hill was blown away like a tornado had suddenly dropped onto the hill. They were flung in all directions, all the way to the foot of the hill. Only about three Hecate campers were on the top.

Alabaster said something to Lou Ellen, who had managed to hang on. She nodded. He shooed with his hand, and she walked down the hill.

She came up to Chiron. "Sir, the boy wants to talk with you. Peacefully."

Chiron sighed. "I don't trust him. But it's clear we can't defeat him."

Lou Ellen looked at me. "Perhaps the son of Tyche could be lucky enough to defeat him."

Chiron looked at me thoughtfully. I wanted to die. Then he shook his head. "No, I don't think so. I will talk to Alabaster."

He galloped up off the hill.

The rest of the campers were put to work helping the Ares and Hecate campers, since they were all hurt.

I watched the talk between Alabaster and Chiron. Chiron seemed to be refusing something Alabaster wanted. He got angrier and angrier. Finally he shouted something.

I was worried it was a spell, but Chiron shrugged and slowly walked down the hill.

I walked with him. "What did he want?"

"He wished to live at camp."

"Why didn't you let him?"

"He wanted…many things. One of which was that he wanted to bring his…friends…in with him. They were warriors, many different kinds. Perhaps a hundred. With those numbers and his powers, he could easily have overrun the camp. I saw it in his eyes. He wanted power."

This was not the Alabaster I knew of. He must have changed, during the war with Gaea.

Then an Athena camper ran up to Chiron. "Sir, I must talk with you. We have a plan to…"

She talked so quietly I couldn't hear her. Chiron swung her onto his back, and they went off toward the Athena cabin together.

I had my own plan. I wanted to find the three most powerful demigods in history.

* * *

After looking for an hour, I had found Jason. He helped me look for Percy and Nico, but we found no sign of them.

I sighed. I sat down on a rock by the dining pavilion.

He looked up. "I could look for them while flying, I suppose…" he said.

I doubted he could find either of them from the air, if we couldn't see them from the ground. He glared at me accusingly. "You should find them, with your luck."

I knew I had no right to get offended, since I had no powers – Tyche just seemed to favor me sometimes – so I shrugged.

"They don't always work like that," I said.

He jumped up into the sky, controlling the winds to float himself up into the air. He looked around, then dropped like a stone. When he was a foot from the ground, he stopped himself, and said to me, "They're together, over by the Big House!"

We hurried over. Sure enough, Percy and Nico were talking about something behind the Big House. It was Mythomagic, so we interrupted and Jason said, "Hey, Percy, Neeks, can you help us?"

"Sure." Percy said. Nico nodded.

I do have to say, being this close to all three of them made me feel lightheaded. These were the greatest heroes of fantasy, and now here I was, in front of them, in real life!

"Um…Yeah, well, there's this demigod, a son of Hecate. He's trying to attack the camp and I thought, since you three are all the most powerful demigods in history, you could defeat him together…Ares and Hecate tried, but they got blown away."

Percy and Nico immediately agreed. (There's some humility for you, agreeing to do something that some thirty-odd others failed at.)

So we took off toward Half Blood-Hill. Alabaster was still standing there. When he saw us, his smile came back. "Here to bring Chiron's message of agreement?" he called to us. "I accept!"

Jason and Nico drew their swords. Percy uncapped Riptide.

Alabaster's smile got bigger. "Here to demand my surrender, then?"

"Surrender," Percy called out.

Alabaster shook his head. "No, no, son of Poseidon. I will not and cannot surrender. You, however, are welcome to join my army as we march on Camp Half-Blood."

"Do you actually think there's a chance we'll accept that offer?" Nico yelled.

They attacked.

Percy attacked at Alabaster's right, creating his own hurricane. Jason attacked his left, covered with swirling electricity, shooting random bolts from his sword and hands.

And Nico summoned three skeletons, which charged with him as he attacked Alabaster's front.

Alabaster summoned his own thugs, three green creatures who looked like a mix between harpies and telkhines. These attacked Nico's skeletons, making them useless. He blocked a cut from Nico, dodged a bolt from Jason, and then redirected Jason's electricity into Percy's chest. With a scream, the son of Poseidon was thrown off the hill; his clothes, hair, and fingers smoking.

Nico glanced toward him, which let Alabaster swing at his leg. He hopped away just in time, but he was off balance. Alabaster swung again, slicing into his side. Nico slipped and stumbled down the hill.

Alabaster turned toward Jason, too late. A concentrated bolt of electricity poured into his face. He screamed and collapsed. I ran to Percy. He was unconscious, but his heartbeat was steady. His hurricane had taken a lot of the energy for him. I ran to Nico, whose leg was bleeding, but other than that he seemed to be fine.

Jason, on the hill, raised his sword to kill Alabaster. "No!" I shouted. "Stop! We can use him to force the monsters to disband!"

Jason paused. Then Alabaster swung his sword up from the ground, slicing into Jason's sword arm. Jason dropped the sword and howled in pain. Then Alabaster shouted a spell, and Jason was flung from the hill, into the forest. He spun and kicked, but he was too hurt to command the winds. He fell into the trees, and I couldn't see what happened.

Alabaster rose to his feet. He walked slowly and unsteadily down the hill. He stopped in front of me.

"Demigod, think you to stop such as I? But no…you are not born of the gods! How then are you in this cursed camp?"

"Trickery," I said. "You, Alabaster. I know what your heart is. Your mother cared for you. She chose wrong in the first war, she made up for it in the second, and the gods gave her a cabin here at camp. The gods did wrong by you in the aftermath of the first war, but they have tried to make things better. Percy Jackson who you tried to kill made things better."

He seemed to be listening to what I said, but he brushed it off. "Boy, you may have indeed the tongue to worm your way into this camp, but you cannot divert me from my goal. That is to destroy this camp and all who live in it. Then…then the third Great War will come to pass, and the gods will not win a third time. They have withdrawn to Olympus, and cannot save the world from what I bring."

He pointed his sword at me. "And do not think I have failed in any of this, even in my so-called attempt to kill Percy Jackson. If I wished to kill any of you, I could do so without wasting so much time about it. No, you will be the first death in the third Great War."

He thrust. Tyche was indeed watching over me. I leaped to the side, barely avoiding the thrust. And my hand brushed against the handle of Nico's Stygian Iron sword. I picked it up, tested it in my hands, and lunged forward.

The thrust was easily turned aside by Alabaster, but the block put him barely off balance. I swung again, at his sword side, making him jump to avoid it. And then I brought it down, hard, at his head. He flung up his sword to avoid the blow, but I was stronger, physically, than he was. His sword rang and vibrated, hurting his hands. Then I swung at his legs. He stabbed the point of his sword into the dirt, making a strong defense. Then I brought the sword up, at an angle, toward his chest. He jumped back, but the sword fell out of his aching hands. I jumped forward to kill him, but he pointed at me.

"Brekan!"

I felt an invisible hand slam into my stomach. I dropped the sword and sank to the ground, curled over. Alabaster grabbed his sword. He raised it. Then a black bolt of energy blasted the sword out of his hands, melting it in midair. A rain of molten iron fell to the ground. His head whipped around. It was Nico, standing unsteadily on one leg.

He flipped his hand up. A four-foot tall chunk of black stone rose from the ground behind Alabaster. A black light shone from Nico, making everything around him dark, but himself light. He put out his hand at the same time as Alabaster. A bolt of energy flew from each of their hands, and hit each other in the middle.

The magic and dark energy created an explosion. I was flung to my side. Alabaster slammed against the black stone. Nico was flung through the air.

Nico stood instantly. But then he collapsed. Alabaster snapped his fingers. A lightning bolt shot from the sky and hit Nico in the back. Nico jerked, flopping around on the ground like a fish out of water.

Alabaster glared around. Percy was running toward him.

He roared in anger and shot out his hand again. A fireball shot toward Percy. He put out his hand.

A jet of water like a hose shot from his fingers and put the fireball out in midair.

Alabaster snapped his fingers. Nico began to glow. Pink and blue energy flowed from his mouth and eyes and fingertips, toward Alabaster's hand. It began to create a glowing, multi-colored ball above his palm.

"This is Nico di Angelo's life force!" he called to Percy, who had gotten halfway toward him. "When you stop, I give it back to him. If not, I will blast you with its energy, killing both of you instantly!"

Percy stopped. "Good," Alabaster called. The energy began to drain back into Nico. When it was gone, Alabaster pointed at Percy. A line of blue power shot toward him.

Percy blasted it with water, but the water turned to ice mid-air. Then the blue energy touched Percy, and he froze solid.

Then Alabaster turned toward me. "Now, if there are no more interruptions—"

Jason ran out from the trees, scratched, bruised, and bleeding. "Stop!" he called. He flew the rest of the way.

"Alabaster, stop!" he said. "Is this what you want?"

"Ask the mortal," Alabaster said. "He knows that yes, this is."

Jason looked at me. "Mortal?"

Alabaster stared at us for a few seconds. Then he burst out laughing. "Oh gods," he cried. "Oh, wonderful. All a mortal has to do to get inside your precious camp is simply _say_ they're a halfblood? How can it still be standing! Oh, Jason Grace, this is amazing."

Jason shook his head. "Well, he fooled us with his unnatural luck," he said. "He said he was a son of Tyche, goddess of luck. We'd never seen one before."

Alabaster roared with laughter. "Son of _Tyche_? _Tyche_? Oh, you fools. Utter, utter fools. Tyche…ha, ha…Tyche is one of the maiden goddesses…Oh, my gods. Perfect, perfect. This is a joke."

Jason stared at him for a moment. Then he shook his head. "Well, you will die, anyway," he said. "Then we'll decide what to do with him."

He swung his sword. Alabaster blocked it with a spell, and snapped his fingers. Jason dodged to the side, but nothing happened. He paused – and a rain of fire blasted him. A solid column of fire surrounded him for a full ten seconds. I could hear him screaming.

Then a blast of water put out the fire, and swept Jason away in the direction of the creek. Percy stood, shivering, surrounded by pieces of ice.

Alabaster groaned. "All I want to do is kill this mortal! Enough already!"

He pointed at Percy. A bolt of electricity shot from his hands. Percy dodged it, and the bolt hit a tree. The wood splintered, the tree collapsed, and a dryad screamed and dissolved into dust.

Alabaster fired again. Lightning hit the ground at Percy's feet. He jumped back, but the next bolt of lightning hit him square in the chest. He jerked as Nico had, then was still. Alabaster ran over to him, and pulsed him with more and more lightning. It covered Percy's body, made worse by all the water Percy had within him. He was unconscious, and getting close to death. Alabaster paused. He checked Percy's heart. Then he stood, and shot another blast of electricity.

Then a red energy bolt hit him in the back.

From the direction of the cabins came the Hephaestus campers and an army of automatons. Alabaster was kind of protected by the spells he had cast on himself, but the powerful blast had knocked a lot of them off.

He summoned a streak of lightning into the nearest one, which short-circuited and collapsed, but the rest of them broke into a charge. Leo, from the middle of a group of them, fired blast after blast from the Valdezblaster, most of which missed and made holes in the ground, but two of which hit Alabaster in his face and sword arm. He was flung backwards, but he seemed to be alive. I ran over to Percy. When I touched him, he shocked me, but I picked him up and brought him toward the army of automatons.

He was lighter than I'd have thought, or maybe that was adrenaline, but I got him into the middle of the group quickly. One of the campers took him, and carried him over toward the cabins. I looked back at Alabaster. He had stood, and was weakly dodging and deflecting blasts. One more shot in the chest should kill him. Then the automatons charged again. Leo fired one more time and the automatons circled around Alabaster.

Leo turned away. "They've got him," he said to me. "Nothing gets away from my –"

A dome of red energy expanded out from Alabaster, disintegrating every robot it touched. In seconds, all that was left of the army was a pile of metal dust.

Leo fired again. Alabaster dodged the blast, and charged toward us. At a spell, the weapon flew out of Leo's hands. Leo threw a fireball, but Alabaster summoned a ball of water and put it out in midair, as Percy had done.

I looked back toward Nico. He was lying in the middle of the grass, bleeding, but I couldn't see Jason.

I waited. Alabaster said another spell, and a ball of green energy fired from his hand and hit Leo in the chest. Leo got knocked away like a rag doll.

Alabaster turned to me. "Mortal, your death has been put aside too many times. I now-"

A silver arrow from the trees hit him in the back of the leg. He collapsed. He shouted a spell, but nothing seemed to happen. I turned and ran.

Another bunch of arrows shot toward Alabaster, but he said a spell and they all froze and dropped.

But he seemed to now have hit his spell limit. His eyes closed and he went limp.

Another lot of arrows shot towards him, making a circle around him on the ground. The arrows grew and made a silver cage. Then out from the trees charged thirty-odd girls, Hunters of Artemis.

They completed the cage, and disappeared back into the trees. A girl I recognized as Thalia came up to me.

"Hi," she said. "We don't have time to stay, but say hi to everyone from me. I'm Thalia."

"Okay," I said. They all melted back into the trees and disappeared.

I went back to Nico.


	5. He's Still The Magic Man

A few hours later, the heroes were all in the infirmary, which had overflowed to the Big House and the Apollo cabin. I was also in the Big House, under guard by two Athena campers.

Chiron came into the room in his wheelchair. "Jake," he said. "You, I believe, are the first mortal to have made it into Camp Half-Blood without anyone knowing you were a mortal."

I nodded.

"Was that your intention?"

"No," I said. "I only wanted to see it. I've read Rick Riordan's books on this place, Camp Jupiter, and Olympus. I just wanted to see that it was all true."

He sighed. "Rick was a problem. He was a son of Athena, but he didn't seem to be wise. He left the camp when he turned eighteen, and wrote all those books. We found him later, and he had gone a little bit crazy, expanding his beliefs to include those of the Ancient Egyptians and the Old Norse.

"But that doesn't solve the problem of what to do with you," he said. "If we banished you into the world, you could spread the truth of Camp to the rest of the mortal world. Armies would attack us. Problems would come up. But if we kept you…well, Rachel Dare is the only other mortal to stay in Camp Half-Blood, and she's the oracle."

I said nothing.

Then suddenly the bell outside the Big House sounded again.

"Di Immortales," Chiron grumbled. "What is it now?"

He walked out. Suddenly I heard a scream, and an explosion, like bricks hitting dirt ground.

I ran outside too. That's what it was. The Hecate Cabin had been completely destroyed. The magical stones that would explode or turn people into plants were flung into the air, where they exploded semi-harmlessly. A bird passing overhead fell as a single potted rose.

A wave of monsters surged over Half-Blood Hill, waving weapons and screaming. Alabaster had understated his army. In this wave there were at least a hundred monsters, and another group of the same size was fighting the Athena and Ares cabins at the creek. A flag, showing a lit torch upside down on a green background, was flying at Zeus' Fist.

Alabaster himself was in the center of the destroyed Hecate cabin, a wild look in his eyes and splintered silver around him. Two dead demigods lay in the rubble, and the rest of them were spread out around the radius of the explosion, casting spells at him. He knocked them aside as easily as if they were Ping-Pong balls.

A lightning bolt shot from one of the half-bloods' hands, and hit Alabaster's outstretched palm. It bounced off, and hit the half-blood in the chest. He sank to the ground.

The rest of them, only about six or seven, regrouped. Four of them touched hands around a fifth, squatting in the center of the ring. The other two raised their hands, and a blue light shone around them. Alabaster fired a fireball at them, but it fizzled out against the light.

Then the son of Hecate in the center of the circle rose. When he opened his eyes, purple light shone out.

He blasted a laser-thin line of purple power at Alabaster. Alabaster ducked. The beam hit a tree, and the tree dissolved into dust.

Alabaster waved his hand, and a burst of fire rolled over the camper. The flames didn't hurt him, though, and he blasted right back at Alabaster with another purple blast, which ricocheted off a mirror summoned by Alabaster and hit another Hecate camper in the chest. He gasped, and fell dead.

Alabaster laughed. The Hecate camper who was battling him glanced a bare second at his brother; then he turned back to Alabaster.

He waved his hand. A rain of golden arrows rained onto Alabaster, who summoned a clear shield and caught them all on it. He selected one and flung it at the camper.

The arrow hit the kid in the arm. He grunted, looked down at the wound, and then charged at Alabaster.

Alabaster waved his hand. The kid's right hand shattered and exploded. But he seemed not to notice. Alabaster destroyed his right leg in the same way, but the kid hobbled on. When he was within a yard of Alabaster, Alabaster waved his hand. The kid's head disappeared in a rain of blood and bone. I jumped away, and closed my eyes.

The next second, I heard a scream, and a crack of thunder. I looked back. Alabaster was lying on his front, arms curled beneath him, smoke rising from a lightning burn in his back. The camper who'd attacked him was nowhere to be seen.

The Ares cabin rushed forward. Chiron tried to restrain them, but he did nothing. The campers drew their weapons and attacked. There were enough of them to block my vision of what they did to the enemy half-blood.

Then an urgent trumpet sounded. The campers seemed to know what it meant. All but the Ares cabin scrambled to Half-Blood hill.

What we saw from there was a nightmare. The forest and nearby road were filled with enemies. There were some monsters, some demons from the Kane Chronicles's descriptions, some enemy half bloods, magicians, and trolls, elves, dwarves, and other monsters from the Magnus Chase books. Every one was well armed. The magicians had hieroglyphs floating around their heads, some of the half-bloods powers were showing, the monsters seemed only barely controlled, and all of the incredibly powerful army, which must have been a thousand strong, half of which were humans, were marching on us.

Leading them was a man covered in a black cloak. His face was hidden, but he was unarmed. He raised his hand, requesting to enter the camp.

Chiron shouted, "You may not enter! Show yourself! Who are you?"

The man flung back his hood – and suddenly I saw a face I had seen on the back flaps of my favorite books all my life.

Rick Riordan.

Chiron looked close to tears. "Rick!" he shouted. "What are you here for?"

"You never believed me about the other mythologies," the man said with a smile. "That's partly why I'm here. To prove it to you."

"What else?"

The man had stepped up to the border of the camp. "I'm here to destroy," he said.

"You may not enter without permission," Chiron said, though he didn't seem so sure. "I do not permit you to enter camp."

"Oh," the man said. "But I believe you let my son in."

Then the clear sky opened up and loosed a thunderbolt, striking the spot where the Ares cabin was still busy over Alabaster. They were thrown in all directions from the force of the strike. At least half of them didn't move. The rest of them groaned and stretched.

Alabaster stood. "I give you permission to enter," he said in a loud voice. "Along with the rest of your army."

He tapped a spell on his shirtsleeve. It glowed green, then blue. And then the protective border of Camp became visible. It glowed like a half-bubble in a dome over the camp. Then with a crack, it popped. Blue energy streaked from the very top, and flowed into Alabaster's spell. Then it all vanished.

"Welcome to Camp Half-Blood," Alabaster said, smiling.

The battle was fought well. The Apollo cabin melted back to the cabin roofs, where they rained death onto the attacking army. The Athena cabin directed strategic assaults on the army. The Ares cabin – what was left of it – led the main charges.

But it wasn't good enough. There was no time for reinforcements or traps. This time, the Party Ponies couldn't help. Neither could the Hunters. One of the Iris kids sent a message to both, but it was too late. In half an hour, the invading army had destroyed the camp, killed half the campers, and took the rest prisoner. None of the seven had been killed. Neither had Calypso. Nico had fought bravely in the battle, but he was weak from Alabaster's original attack and shadow-traveled to the Underworld to get help.

They loaded us into trucks, packed together like boxes. I was in the same van as the seven and what was left of the Hermes cabin.

"What do we do?" Piper asked.

No one answered. Annabeth opened her mouth twice, like she was going to say something, but she didn't.

Then Leo spoke up. "Where are they taking us?"

No one had an answer. We all searched our pockets, but the enemies had frisked us. They had taken everything from everyone – except me. I was a mortal. Maybe…

I took out my laser pointer. In the dim light of the truck, it looked like a pen.

"Oh, great," Annabeth said, "a pen. We can write on them?"

"Is it like Riptide?" Percy asked.

"Well…" I answered. "It's a laser."

I pressed the button. The beam hit the ceiling. The reflection was so strong it made our eyes hurt to look at it; it would hurt even worse to have the beam directly in your eyes.

"We can use this to blind whoever comes to take us out," I said. "Then, while they're stumbling around, we take them out, get our weapons back, and get the other truckloads of campers free."

Everyone nodded at this. Even Annabeth didn't argue with my plan, the daughter of Athena that she was.


	6. Best Laid Plans of Mice and Demigods

When the truck stopped, we heard loud arguing right outside our door. Then we heard a sword being drawn, and bootsteps going to the driver's cab. The door unlocked with a click. We waited…

Jason was holding the laser, right behind the door. When it opened, Annabeth's plan was that Jason, Percy, Frank, and the Hermes campers were going to jump out and attack. (The boys wanted the girls not to fight. Piper and Annabeth complained that that was sexist; Hazel was asleep.)

Leo was going to be right behind them, launching fireballs as much as possible. Piper and Annabeth were going to get to the cab during the fight, and charmspeak anyone inside to get out and run away as far and fast as possible. They were then going to honk the horn as a signal to the others to get back inside the truck, and then they were going to drive away, Frank and Leo giving them cover as they drove, if Frank could find a bow. Once they had gotten far enough away, we would make a new plan as to how to get the rest of the campers free.

A great plan, if it had worked.

* * *

First of all, when we first blinded the half-blood, he had stumbled backwards, unlike what we had thought he would. That lost us our tiny chance of surprise.

Then the half bloods poured out of the van. Percy, Jason, and Frank were pushed aside by the over-eager Hermes campers, destroying any chance of lightning strikes from Jason, or floods from Percy.

And we had forgotten about the various strengths of the other mythologies' warriors. The magicians, for one thing. Without weapons, and without Jason and Percy's powers being an option, they cut us down like flies. Their spells literally filling the air, so many lights it was hard to look at.

Piper and Annabeth went back to the van, I learned later. Piper, however, tripped as she was charmspeaking, so the driver woke up for a bit and slammed his fist on the horn as an alert. After he ran away, however, Annabeth and Piper still had to get in and start up the truck. The halfbloods ran back to the truck from the horn, but of course Piper and Annabeth weren't ready.

The spells just kept cutting down the two half bloods at a time that would stand in front of the door. Jason managed to summon a lightning bolt, frying two magicians and a jotun, but he was too tired and passed out directly after.

I used the laser as much as I could, throwing off the magicians and monsters, but there were too many of them. The Valhallan warriors dragged most of the demigods out of the truck before Piper and Annabeth drove away.

Two Hermes campers, Travis and Connor Stoll, Leo, and I were left on the truck when it drove away.

Leo ran to the front of the cargo container. "Hey, Beauty Queen!" he yelled, banging on the wall. "Wise Girl! Stop! Wait!"

Nothing happened. They didn't hear him.

He ran back to the door, launching random fireballs from his hands in anger. He looked like he was going to jump off. I might have too. But just then an arrow hit the truck door.

Travis slammed the door shut. The inside of the container was dimly lit by Leo's fire.

"Did we get any weapons?" I asked half-heartedly.

Travis shrugged and pointed to a pile at the side of the container. I looked through it. A good haul, actually. Two Celestial Bronze swords, one Egyptian one, which does work on monsters from the enchantments placed in it. A bow, with a full quiver of arrows. Two knives, both Valhallan. They also worked on monsters and demons.

"Good," I said. "Pick a weapon."

Travis and Connor took a knife each. Leo chose a Greek sword. So did I.

"Okay," I said. "Let's make a plan, if Annabeth isn't."

Travis nodded.

"Any ideas?" I asked.

Leo raised his hand. "Why not wipe out a bunch of monsters with the truck and –"

He was cut off by the truck swerving to the right, throwing us all onto the left wall. Then the truck stopped, sending us sliding to the front. Travis raced to the door, followed by Connor.

He threw the door open – colliding with the face of a mortal policeman. The poor man collapsed.

A police car was behind us. Another cop pointed his weapon at us. "Drop the weapons!" he yelled.

I dropped my sword. No one else did, so I picked it back up.

"These are fake, man," Leo said. "Come on, see?"

The man stared at the deadly sharp, Celestial bronze weapon, shrugged and said, "You're still all under arrest. Get outside."

He walked to the front of the van. Annabeth's voice sounded, and then Piper said something. The man turned and walked around to his car. He got in and drove away, leaving his partner unconscious on the ground.

Annabeth and Piper came running around the edge of the truck. When they saw us standing outside, they frowned. "Where's Jason?" Piper said, at the same time that Annabeth said, "Where's Percy?"

I glanced at Leo, hoping he would say something, having been with them the longest. He just shrugged and glanced at me. For some reason, the thought popped into my head; _does he know I'm a mortal?_ It didn't matter anyway. I said, "Well, um…when the horn sounded, everyone jumped in, but we lost any fighting chance we may have had. So…the enemies got them before you drove away."

I didn't know what I was expecting them to do. But I know I was surprised when Annabeth and Piper looked at each other.

"Then get in, mortal," Annabeth said. "We're going back."

* * *

We drove back. Leo, it turned out, hadn't known I was mortal, so the atmosphere was a bit different. Not hostile, though, which was a nice change.

When we got back, the trucks had been unloaded, and captured demigods and satyrs were chained to metal poles, horizontal to the ground. The poles were high enough that the demigods had to stand, but they had to bend their legs. This was just one more way of making them uncomfortable.

Chiron, Haley, and Rick were nowhere to be seen. I also didn't see any of the heroes of the Magnus Chase books or the Kane Chronicles. Maybe the enemies were just the bad ones.

Anyway, Annabeth barreled straight through one of the campfires they had set up, destroying the warriors sitting around it. Most of them were not monster, so I was surprised that she would kill them.

We jumped out, holding our weapons. Two enemy demigods scrambled away, but Leo and Travis knocked them out with blows to their heads. Three dracaenae attacked. Annabeth and Piper came towards us, but two magicians cut them off.

Piper charmspoke one of them into casting a freezing spell on both of them. But the delay cost Connor a gash to the leg. I killed a dracaena myself, and Leo hit the other two with fire. He was looking weak, though, so Travis told him not to use his fire powers anymore.

By this time, all the rest of the army had been alerted to us. They took their positions, though most of them looked like they didn't care about five demigods and a mortal.

I took the opportunity to charge between two monsters and hack the chains off the nearest captured demigod. I didn't recognize him, but he picked up a weapon and we set to work freeing the other demigods. It went slow, though, because we had to keep fighting off the various enemies.

I was looking for the seven. I saw Hazel, and hurried over to her. She seemed all right, so I said, "Could you get to the trucks and try to use your magic on the enemy?"

She nodded. I kept going.

By this time, maybe ten demigods had been freed. They had all found weapons and joined the fight. By this time, though, it was raining and a fog was rising. I tried to find a group, but all I saw were two fighting back to back against two other demigods.

I joined them, and together we wounded one and sent the other scrambling away into the mist.

* * *

It was getting darker. We were on the side of a road, grass and bushes everywhere, and the rain and the fog made it hard to see anything. The only real light was from the fires and the truck headlights, and from the occasional car rushing by. Finally I followed the sound of the most fighting, and found a group of six demigods, none of them the seven, fighting plenty of demons, monsters, and Valhallan warriors. I fought with them, but we were fighting a losing battle. We were backing to the side of one of the trucks.

Then a group of maybe twenty demigods charged into the fight. They slaughtered the monsters, and killed, wounded, or knocked out most of the humans.

I looked at their faces, but none of the seven were there. "Has anyone seen any of the seven?" I asked.

They all looked at each other, shaking their heads. "I sent Hazel to a truck to do magic," I said. "And Annabeth, Piper and Leo were in the truck that came back. But Jason? Percy? Where are they all?"

"Let's stay together," Malcolm from the Athena cabin said. "Who should lead us?"

And then, for reasons I can never understand, he looked at me. "Lead us, Jake," he said.

I accepted.

We went though the clearing, finishing off monsters, demigods, and pretty much any enemy we found. We added plenty of demigods to our numbers, but no sign of the seven. One of the half bloods had said they saw Hazel at the truck, concentrating, but when it started to rain and the fog rolled in, they couldn't see her anymore.

"Frank will kill me if she's hurt," I said. "And not only that, but these are some of the strongest demigods in history. They would be the most powerful forces."

They all nodded. "But we will not split up," I said. "Let's just keep looking."

A good find: in one of the trucks, there were boxes of flashlights. Each of us took some, and we used them to look for more demigods and the seven.

Now, I knew the enemies weren't defeated. We had killed maybe a tenth of their whole number, but they were nowhere to be seen. Occasionally we came across a few telkhines or a magician, but mostly the clearing seemed to be deserted.

"Maybe they left," someone suggested.

I looked around at the trucks. "Did anyone see how many trucks there were?" I asked.

An Athena camper raised her hand. "There were twelve," she said.

"Okay, what we'll do is this," I decided. "I need volunteers to stand by each truck. We'll give you a number. Then we'll know how many are left, and therefore how many are gone."

An Athena camper nodded. "Let's do it."

We did. I had them each shine their flashlight into the air, which showed plainly against the fog and low clouds.

There turned out to be eight trucks left. As I counted the lights against the sky one last time with Malcolm – I heard a shriek. And a light went out.

Instantly everyone shouted and started moving. "Hold!" I screamed. If all the order was lost now, we would be easily destroyed. "No one move! Everybody quiet!"

By the time order was restored, another of the lights had gone out.

"Three campers follow me!" I yelled. "Three go with Malcolm! The rest of you, _stay here_! You –" I pointed to an Athena camper. "What's your name?"

"Greg," he said.

"If something happens to us," I shouted to everyone, "I will call to Greg. He will lead you! You will all get into this truck and go back to Camp Half-Blood! Get someone who has drivers' license! Do you understand! Do not come back for us until tomorrow."

Greg nodded, serious-faced. "Weapons ready," I said to my group. It was two Ares campers and an Apollo. "Malcolm. See you on the other side."

He nodded. "Let's go," I said to my team.

We charged toward the remaining lights. While I had been giving orders, two more had gone out. At each truck, the flashlight was on the ground. The demigod was nowhere to be seen.

I led the team toward the nearest light. The demigod was shaking, terrified, his sword out. "Peace," I said. "We're friends. Come on."

He dropped the flashlight, joined us, and we kept going. We came to the next one. That camper joined us. Malcolm met up with us with the other two half-bloods, and we started back to the group.

And then a voice called out in terror, "Greg! Greg! Go!"

Malcolm spun around, cursing me. But I hadn't spoken. The campers all turned in the direction of the voice. Nothing but shadows. "Come on," I spat. We sprinted toward the group.

And a truck door slammed and the vehicle peeled away to Camp Half-Blood.


	7. I Hate Prophecies and Hitchhiking

"Di Immortales!" Malcolm howled. "Stop!"

Of course they couldn't hear us. They were gone already. We were stuck here until tomorrow, when the campers would come back for us. And we would be dead.

I looked around the clearing. So far I could see no one. The light trees away from the highway were dark and forbidding-looking.

"Okay…" I said. "Malcolm, what do you think?"

He looked around. "Hitchhike?"

"Maybe," I said. We stood at the edge of the highway, waving at passing cars, but none of them stopped. I wouldn't have. Anyway, after maybe five minutes, nothing had happened. Finally, we decided to stop.

"Let's just walk," I said. "We'll try to get back to Camp…" And then I realized what had happened. I had sent the campers to a razed, defenseless area, in the middle of nowhere. And going back there would be no help. Camp Jupiter was obviously too far away.

"Mist? I.M.?" I asked. No one answered. "Let's just go into the trees," I said quietly. "It's a terrible strategy, I know, but there's a chance the enemies won't expect it."

"Wait!" Malcolm said, smacking himself upside the head. "The trucks!"

I felt like kicking myself. Of course, the trucks. We could just take a new one and follow the rest of the campers.

Then, as if in answer, seven perfectly aimed arrows out of nowhere streaked into the engines of each truck and exploded. The cabs burst into flames, sending shards of glass skittering across the ground.

"Well, that answers that," I said. "Let's do my idea."

Malcolm shook his head. "We should just walk along the road. They wouldn't attack us in full view of everyone, would they?"

"There are a few things I thought of as arguments to that," I said. "Firstly, if we lose the light of the fires, the headlights, and now the lovely burning cabs, we'll be more vulnerable. Secondly, this is not a very well-driven road, and there will be a time when they can kill us all without anyone seeing anything. Lastly, there are ten to twenty miles of nothing in either direction that we would have to walk before we came to anywhere. I'm not up for that after an invigorating but exhausting day of fighting."

"Fine," Malcolm said, "We'll try the forest. But when we die, you remember that there was another option."

I looked over our band. Four Ares, one Iris, two Athena, one Hephaestus, two Hermes, one Apollo, one Nemesis, and one Hebe. Thirteen in all, then Malcolm and myself. A terrifying group in any other situation, but now we were the underdogs.

"All right," I said. "Let's do it."

Quietly, we charged the forest, swords drawn, ready to cut down anyone we met.

* * *

Nothing happened. The trees seemed to be empty.

We kept going, making a line, two demigods thin, and seven wide, so as not to miss anyone. I went in front, since I wanted to take whatever was coming to me. The influence of the Greek warriors must have been getting to me.

Nothing. We charged for a solid minute, finally breaking out through the other side. And then…we found nothing. Just an empty field, surrounded by trees.

Empty? No. There was something in the middle of the field. A jar…Pandora's jar. I walked toward it, cautiously. A note was taped to the lid. I picked it up, not being dyslexic, and read,

 _Dear Jake. I'm Rick, writing. I know you want your friends back. I even understand. However, I'm afraid that with my present agenda, that will be impossible. However, inside this jar is something quite interesting. You've read my stories, I assume? Well, this is the famous_ pithos _that Pandora was given. And, as you already know, she released all the 'bad stuff', as Haley puts it, into the world. However, Hope is still inside. I give you now Prometheus' ultimatum to Percy: Release Hope when you have given up. When you do, all Hope will leave mankind. My plan will be completed, and I promise: You may choose anyone to be spared._

 _P.S.: In case you're wondering what became of poor Rachel Elizabeth Dare, she's with me. Believe me, she's quite eager to give up Hope and surrender to me._

 _\- Uncle Rick_

I was furious. I tore the note into smaller and smaller shreds. I left the jar where it was, and spoke to the demigods. "Riordan wants us to give up hope and surrender to him. He has our friends, but he didn't say where they are. We have to find them. On a lighter note, however, we can have more than three people for this quest and there's no deadline. Also, there's no prophecy for us to sweat over."

And I jinxed it then, because Apollo appeared out of nowhere. A bright light shone from him, and the light drizzle turned to steam before it reached him.

"Hey everybody," he said, grinning hugely. "This is great weather, huh? Anyway, just wanted to drop in, deliver terror and confusion. Be gone in a flash, literally."

"Apollo!" I said, relieved. The god would surely help us now, right?

Wrong.

"Sorry, kid," he said, reading my mind. "No direct involvement, you know? What I'm gonna do, though, is tell you a prophecy and give you your deadline."

I would have laughed if it had been funny.

"Anyway," he said, "here's the prophecy:

 _Three from the camp that will be reborn,_

 _Shall find Athena's son's new home._

 _Defeat the stone before the pit awakes_

 _Which shall be when the fourth day breaks._

 _When Hope has risen, then will fall_

 _The young king's ancient childhood hall._

 _If any victory shall be found,_

 _'_ _Twill be on Hades' child's ground._

 _Blood from the Usurper with a blade  
_

 _May end the rising on the fourth day._

There you go," he said, grinning again. "No idea what it means, but there's a lot of cool stuff gonna happen, I can tell you that. Anyway, to give you strength for your journey, I will recite for you an Apollo original haiku! I know you feel honored. Here it is:

 _Everyone will win,_

 _If you all listen to me._

 _I am the best._

There you go," he finished. "Thank you, thank you. Yeah, just so you know, the deadline is the day after the day after tomorrow. Three days, like it says in the prophecy. Hope you do great!"

He disappeared in a blaze of light before I could point out that 'I am the best' has only four syllables. I might not have wanted to, anyway. He might've blasted me.

"Okay, guys," I said. "So, who are the three?"

Malcolm instantly raised his hand. So did one of the Ares campers, Jeff. The rest of them looked down, up, and anywhere but me.

"Great," I said. "Let's do this!"


	8. Always Post a Lookout

**Hey everyone! BTW, I tweaked the prophecy. Just a bit. Oh, and madwam: Yes. Be worried.**

The team kept going, leaving the other eleven demigods behind. They had decided to trudge along the road towards the nearest populated city.

The three kept walking. I led, but in truth I had no idea where we were going. I also had no idea why there was a deadline at all. But anyway, we kept going in the direction we suspected Rick's army had gone.

After an hour, we were all exhausted. I decided we could rest. I didn't set a lookout, deciding anything that wanted to kill us would have done so already.

I was right. When we woke up the next morning, we were all fine, the sun was shining, and the rain and the fog were gone. The day seemed great.

Then two trucks burst from the trees, and two enemy squadrons poured out.

* * *

There was no fight, of course. Three under-twenties against a hundred monsters? No contest. They disarmed us and packed us into a truck. We were put in cages, so the monsters wouldn't get too tempted to destroy us.

The truck went along for an hour. During that time, Pandora's jar appeared in my cage, though I didn't break it.

When the truck stopped, the monsters poured out, howling and screeching. They seemed to be the only warriors except for our three personal guards, who were magicians.

We were chained, and taken to Rick Riordan. Blindfolded, so I couldn't see our surroundings.

When the blinds were taken off, we were in a simple, plain white, room, windowless, one door, unfurnished except for a chair. In which was sitting Rick.

I would have lunged for him, chains and all, but it would have jeopardized our mission and endangered Malcolm and Jeff.

Rick smiled at us, like the Uncle his unwitting fans called him. "Well, my little heroes. Having a good time?"

No one answered.

"Ah, heroes. You will soon join your demigod friends. But first, would you like to know what my plan is?"

No one answered.

"Well, I'll tell you. Part of it, of course. Being a writer, I understand that you can't just tell everyone everything, else they'll manage to break out and ruin it all. Anyway, Tartarus is rising. Thought I'd throw that out there, also he wants revenge on the Olympians for imprisoning him where he is."

No one said anything.

"Throw them in with the rest," he grumbled.

They did. Using a spell, the magicians teleported us straight into the dungeon where we found the demigods imprisoned. The seven, however, were still nowhere to be found.

Everyone else was in the room, though. The truckfull of demigods that had headed back to Camp had been intercepted by one of the trucks. The group of eleven that had started along the road had been picked up by a second, and the rest had been transported straight from the battle to here.

No one knew what had happened to the seven. They hadn't been in the group taken from the battle, so they must have left during the fight. Also: Nico was gone. So was Will Solace. This led to some half-hearted jokes amongst the demigods of the dungeon, but no one was in the mood for humor.

After a while, enemy demigods came along the lines of chained half-bloods, with food. Rick's prisoners ate well, I must say, those who accepted it anyway. Many of them spat the food back at the jailers.

After a while longer, the demigods left and the lights were turned out. "Good night," Rick's voice said over the PA with a chuckle.

It wasn't restful for anyone.

 **Sorry for shortness. Next chappie is definitely longer.**

 **Survive!**


	9. Neeks To the Rescue (Yay!)

Halfway through the night, I was awakened by someone shaking me. I woke up instantly and I think silently, which I have to say I am proud of myself for. Someone whispered in my ear, "It's Nico di Angelo. Are you Jake Siaki?"

I nodded. He drew a sword, and I felt my chains being hacked off. Then he took my hand. "Okay," he said. "I'm gonna shadowtravel us out of here. Be ready, this is not comfortable for first timers."

I remembered what Percy had said – no, no, it was Rick. What Rick had said about shadowtraveling. Before I could ask if it was a good idea, we left.

It was terrible.

Anyway, we appeared outside. The moon and the stars gave a faint light, which was even more for me since I had been in the pitch-dark for a while.

And there were the seven.

"Finally," I mumbled.

Nico let go of me and sat down, his head between his knees. "Ah, dizzy," he said. Will Solace rushed over and tried to help him. I looked back at the assembled demigods, who were staring at me expectantly.

"Well?" Percy said. "Prophecy."

I told them, best as I could remember. They thought about it, then Nico said from behind me, "I'll go."

"What?" I said.

"I'll. Go. On the quest?"

"But…but…it was Malcolm and Jeff!"

"You don't know that. It could be anyone."

"Well who's the third?"

Will raised his hand. "Me!"

I groaned. "But…fine."

Nico raised an eyebrow. "Are you 'fine' –ing me?"

"Um…no," I said, deciding not to bother the (in my opinion) most powerful demigod of all time.

"I think I understand the 'pit' part," Annabeth said. "Tartarus."

Percy and Nico flinched without meaning to. "Tartarus is rising, yeah," Percy said.

No one added anything. That was all that needed to be said. And then the mutual _we're so dead_ that we were all feeling.

Nico shrugged. "Then we stop him. Simple."

Everyone nodded, though we were not feeling like it was so simple.

"So where do we go first?" I asked.

"That's even more simple," Nico said, shrugging again. "Back inside."

* * *

Back inside it was. He shadowtraveled us as close as we could to Rick Riordan's room. Rick was asleep. As we stepped into the room, though, two magician bodyguards sensed the three of us entering.

One of them started to shout a warning, but with a wave of Nico's hand he fell asleep. The other one got halfway through a divine word before I lunged forward and brought the flat of my sword down on his head with all my strength.

Then we turned to the door to check no one had heard us.

Unfortunately, Haley, AKA Alabaster, had. He was standing there, sword out, lunging at Nico.

The blade went through Nico's chest and out the other side. He stared at the blade for a second, then fell backwards. The sword slid out.

Nico collapsed on the ground. Alabaster turned to us, grinning, but the look on Will's face terrified even me. Then he began to glow. So bright I looked away. Alabaster turned away too, fumbling for a rune around his neck. But then his sleeve burst into flames.

He yelped and smacked at it. Then the fire spread to his shirt. His whole body burst into flame.

He screamed and ran to the door. Then with a last howl, he collapsed.

He continued to burn; though, surprisingly, his body seemed intact. As I watched him, he seemed not to burn at all, neither did his clothes.

I glanced at Will, but he was kneeling next to Nico. Nico wasn't moving.

"Nico, Nico," Will was saying. "Come on!"

I felt his chest. There was no heartbeat.

"Nico!" Will threw himself out of the room, grabbing Alabaster's sword as he passed his body.

He ran down a hallway.

Now I had a problem. There was Rick, who obviously had to be restrained. There was Nico, who, being a son of Hades, I suspected had something where he could come back from the dead a bit. Anyway, he could just force Charon to let him out.

Down the hall, I heard a clang of sword on sword. Before I could go help, a strange voice cried out and a body collapsed. Will's footsteps continued on.

I glanced at Rick. He was moving around. I knocked him out with a blow to the head, and then suddenly Haley stood with a cry. "No! Mother!"

He looked around the room, confused. "Where am I?" he said to no one in particular. He looked at me. I was too stunned to do anything. Then he saw Nico. "Is that…Nico di Angelo?" he said, eyes wide.

His clothes were actually intact. Nothing had changed about him. He moved toward Nico, but before he could touch him I growled and swung my sword at him.

He jumped back and grabbed a sword off the wall. "You killed him?" he yelled.

"You killed him!" I screamed back at him. I lunged at him. He deflected the strike easily, and I remembered what had happened the last time I fought him. But this time he used no spells. He merely fought, sword on sword. But he was good.

Then Will came into the room. He stared at Alabaster for a second, then lunged at him. Alabaster yelped and spun, blocking the strike into the wall. I swung down at his head. He blocked the strike, then kicked Will though the doorway. He stabbed at me. I jumped back. Before I could get back my balance, he went through a series of moves that destroyed my defenses, and then he disarmed me with a quick strike.

I expected him to kill me, but he just kicked me in the chest, sending me stumbling back into Rick's bed. Rick jolted awake. He glanced around the room, uncomprehending.

Will charged back into the room, swinging the sword wildly. I grabbed Rick's sword off the bedside table and attacked Haley's back. He blocked Will's swing, and then I stabbed him in the shoulder.

He howled and spun around. Before he could do anything, though, two of Rick's demigods charged into the room.

I ran over to Will, and we fought back-to-back. But we were fighting a defensive battle against three older and stronger warriors. Then Rick took a sword and attacked us.

As we fought, I glanced over to where Nico was lying, and noticed he had stopped bleeding. I didn't know whether that was a bad thing, but before I could look any better, one of the enemy demigods stepped in for a thrust. After that it was solid thirty seconds of fighting.

Then Rick hit a red button on the wall. An alarm blared through the building, and I heard many footsteps pounding all over the place. We were about to have company.

Then the wall disintegrated in a flash of black light.

I looked over, surprised. The other fighters were also startled, so luckily they didn't take advantage of me. Nico was standing, hand out, pointing through the wall. It went straight outside. And the seven were charging toward us.

They were ten seconds away…five…then a group of ten or so monsters charged in through the room. The enemy demigods and Rick didn't even glance at them, but Haley spun towards them in shock.

"Monsters!" he said. He raised his hand, and a fireball shot from it and hit the nearest monster in the face, disintegrating him instantly.

He lunged forward with his sword, and stabbed another one through the chest. The monster howled and turned to a pile of dust.

"Son!" Rick shouted, angry. "What are you doing?"

"Monsters!" Haley yelled back. "I'm fighting them!"

"Di immortales," Rick said. He kicked Haley in the back, sending him stumbling into a two-headed dog man.

Haley yelped, decapitated the monster, and spun around at Rick. He stared in disbelief. "…Father?"

But Rick didn't notice. He attacked me again, stronger than before. I blocked a cut, and barely noticed the battle to my left, the seven fighting increasing numbers of monsters. Then another monster, a telkhine, charged at me, and I had to jump onto the bed.

"Defense mode. Defense mode," a speaker said. Like Hephaestus' throne, the bed sent out bolts of electricity. Unlike Percy Jackson, however, I was unable to dodge them in time. All I did was leap off the bed when I heard the voice, but I didn't get far enough. One of the bolts hit me in the back and I fell in a heap on the ground.

Will came over to me. He rubbed some healing ointment on my back, and took out a canteen of nectar.

"No, wait!" I said, scrambling away from him. "No nectar!"

He frowned. "Why not?"

"I'm mortal, Solace!"

His eyes widened. He didn't get a chance to say anything, though, because a Cyclops slammed an axe down between us. I lunged for his leg, stabbing him just above the knee. His leg buckled. "Arrrr!" he screamed, and that was before Jason cut off his head.

Will started to say something else, but then a group of magicians charged into the room, and we had to concentrate on fighting.

During the battle, which we were slowly losing, being pushed back to the hole in the wall by the seemingly endless army, Nico shadow-traveled away.

I looked around for him, but he was gone, so I shrugged and kept fighting, assuming he had a plan.

He did.

Soon I heard pounding footsteps, a Greek battle cry, and through the crowded door came twenty-odd demigods, led by Nico di Angelo. They cleared the room, then before any more came we barricaded the door with Rick's bed.

Then we turned to Rick. "So what's going on?" Percy said. "How come you're attacking? Tartarus rising? How come Haley's got a different side in him?"

Rick looked around. It was true, of course. During the battle, Haley had fought with us. Not against us.

Rick said, "Let me explain. Son—"

Haley held up his hand. "What's going on? Don't give me _son_."

Rick sighed. "Haley here was brainwashed to join my righteous fight against the Olympians."

He cocked his head, as if listening for something. Annabeth tapped her foot impatiently. "Hurry up!"

He shrugged. "That's it. He was necessary for the original attack on Camp Half-Blood. However, we won't need him when we march on Camp Jupiter."

Haley looked slightly offended. "Well," I said, "what is your plan?"

Rick listened to nothing again. He nodded, eyes closed. Then he looked at me. "Oh…the plan? Well, my original thought was we should march on Olympus at once. But Tartarus knew we should be destroying you little ones first, since the gods – weak as they are – will always have to rely on you for help."

I expected there to be rumbling in the sky. Nothing. Then I noticed Rick doing it again, listening as if someone was talking in his ear.

Annabeth looked at Percy. Then I remembered. From The Lightning Thief. Ares had been getting orders. From…

"Get down!" I said, expecting something bad. Everyone threw themselves on the floor – Greek warrior reflexes. I did too.

One second. Two seconds.

"I was wrong," I muttered, a bit embarrassed. "Sorry."

As I began to stand up…

Riordan exploded.


	10. Let's Go On a Field Trip of Olympus

I mean exploded. Like, pieces of Rick went everywhere. Gross, huh? But it gets worse. Everything dissolved…into dust…like a monster.

I whipped my head around to the door, and then the hole in the wall, expecting…I don't know. An attack, maybe?

Anyway, I was looking around…and then I heard a voice. Deep, deeper than anything. Old and powerful. I looked at Percy. He mouthed _Tartarus_.

The voice said, "Heroes…Leave this place. Leave me in peace, or you will suffer…I will march on Olympus. The mortal was foolish to think to control me…foolish to give into your hands the one thing that we could use…Leave…"

Everyone had frozen, and listened completely. Now we looked at each other, still quiet.

"That was…" Nico said, and Annabeth finished, "Tartarus."

I sat down. I was a mortal. I shouldn't be mixed up in this.

If I'd known her then as well as I do now, I would've known that she had her 'thinking as hard as she can' face. But I didn't, so it startled me when she said, "Part of the prophecy was completed!"

Jason took it. "How?"

"Find Athena's son's new home. That's here…" she stamped the floor. "And defeat the stone before the pit awakes. That would be…" she pointed to Haley. "You."

"Me?" he asked, pointing to himself. "The pit?"

"No. The stone! Alabaster!"

We all nodded and said clever things like, 'ahh' and 'aha'.

"So now…" Jason said, trying to remember the prophecy. "What was the next line?"

"When hope has risen, then will fall, The young king's ancient childhood hall."

Everyone looked at the floor, or their shoes, or something.

Then Percy looked up. "Hey Wise Girl."

She looked at him. "What?"

"Everything changes with Western Civilization? Right?"

"Everything _moves_ , but yeah," she answered.

"So…we're going to Olympus next."

"Why?"

"Zeus is the young king."

You could have heard a pin drop. Everyone's mouths opened a bit, and Annabeth put on her 'really thinking, if you mess with her you will be cut' face.

"Hope…Childhood hall…Seaweed Brain, you are right. For once."

Ignoring his 'Hey!", she turned to the rest of the group. "I've got it. Well…Seaweed Brain got it first. Anyway, when Zeus was a baby they hid him in a cave, right? With Amaltheia and the nymphs and everything, to take care of him. So that cave must be his…hall, or whatever."

Everyone nodded. She was right, I felt it. "Okay," she said. "Let's go."

Percy tapped her on the shoulder. "Sorry, Wise Girl," he said. "This isn't our quest."

She looked stunned for a second, then shrugged sadly. "Now we kick back and relax…and let the mortals quest," she added with a glare at me.

Will Solace raised his hand. "Why did no one tell me he was a mortal?"

So yeah. That was how I got on the bad side of Will Solace. For a few minutes, at least. Nico assured me that I was probably the first person to do so since he and Will knew each other.

* * *

Anyway, we took a taxi to the Empire State Building. New York, of course, the 'city that never sleeps,' was busier at three in the morning than the city in California where I came from at four in the afternoon on a Saturday.

Anyway, I paid the driver, we got out, and stood in front of the Empire State Building. Looking up, I realized something. "Guys?" I said.

"What?" Nico and Will answered.

"Olympus isn't for mortals!"

Nico looked at me. "Rachel got up there just fine…"

I shrugged. "I'll try, just I'm ruining the quest."

"You're fine," Nico said. "Though I do envy you being a mortal."

I shook my head. "Much rather be a demigod."

We walked in.

The lobby was thankfully empty. The security guard was reading a big blue book with a dragon on the front. He looked up when we came in.

"Olympus," Nico said to him. He must've recognized the son of Hades, because he gave him the key card without any argument.

But when he saw me, his eyes narrowed. "Is he half-blood?" he asked. Nico shrugged.

We got in the elevator. Nico inserted the card in the slot, and the red 600 appeared on the panel. He pressed it.

At first we went up floor by floor, but once we hit 102, we went up by fifty at a time – probably because there was no 432nd floor. Once we hit 600, the doors opened.

"Look away," Nico advised. I didn't.

I should have. The brightness and general godliness of the mountain city made my eyes hurt. It definitely wasn't for mortals.

We walked along, I holding onto Will's shoulder so I could just stare at the ground.

We stopped by a minor god, whom Nico asked where Zeus's baby cave was. In those exact words. So the minor god looked at us funny, but then when Nico explained himself he pointed it out.

It was kind of a landmark on Olympus, with signs saying 'Come see where the king of the gods grew up!' and stuff like that.

We went inside. There was no one there, so we explored freely. But I didn't understand what it had to do with the quest.

After about ten minutes, I asked, "Hey guys? Maybe there's nothing here. Maybe the line was a warning."

Nico was looking at some drawings by baby Zeus, on display in a glass case. He looked at me. "Well, then, we'll have to think about the next line. What was it? Something about me."

"Yeah," I said. "Hades' child's ground. Do you have ground?"

"Erm…not really," he said. "I have my room in the Underworld, my cabin here, my…yeah, not really."

I thought about it. "Maybe it's not you," I said. "Maybe it's anyone."

"But who had ground?" he asked. "Well…Mussolini and Hitler had a lot of property…I guess…but it would seem like we could be more sure."

"Guys," Will said. "How about what Tartarus…" As he said the name, a roll of thunder sounded. "Erm…I mean…well anyway, what he said about giving us the only thing that he could use, or something?"

"Yeah," I said. "The mortal was Rick, right? Tar– I mean, the pit, I guess, he said Rick had tried to control him? How can anyone control Tartarus?"

More thunder. "Sorry."

Nico said, "But the thing he gave. He didn't give us anything. Except food? Right? What about the weapons and flashlights you guys used at the truck clearing?"

"What about Pandora's jar?" I said. "Hope. And the line in the prophecy! Now it makes sense!"

"What?" Nico asked.

"Hope! Hope is important somehow. Maybe it started here when baby Zeus survived! So when Hope is lost…this place will crumble…But why is this cave important?"

Will said, "Annabeth would probably be better at this. Let's get back to her."

We had left the seven and the freed demigods moving away from Rick's house (or HQ, or whatever,) so they were probably safe. The not-safe ones were the half-bloods Nico hadn't had time to free.

"Okay," I said. Just then, a voice came over the cave's loudspeakers, used by the nymphs to calm baby Zeus down and hide his crying from Kronos. It said, "Cave closing in one minute. Cave closing in one minute."

We left.

However, as we left, we failed to notice the sign on the wall that I only noticed later, saying, "Please refrain from vandalizing the cave walls. Cave and Olympus are connected, what you do to the one happens to the other."


	11. Demons and Monsters and Jars, Oh My

Nico shadow-traveled us straight to the seven. The laws of Olympus stated you may only ever enter by the elevator. If you get in any other way, you have to have the gods' permission. But getting out was different.

We scared them all, since it was still fairly dark, at four in the morning. Swords were at all of our throats before they recognized us. Well, at least their reflexes were good.

We told them what we had found out and thought about in Olympus. Suddenly Percy said, "Hey, look, an I.M."

We turned and saw the face of a girl, Thalia, through a shimmering rainbow. She was saying something we couldn't, hear, and then the sound came on. "…and they're only ten minutes away!"

"What was that, Thalia?" Annabeth asked.

"I said, an army! Monsters of every kind, the worst and most ancient ones! Tartarus is giving up every monster we've ever defeated! Even Kampê! The empousa Kelli! The manticore! We're in New Mexico. Actually…"

She looked around. "We're near the junkyard where Bianca died."

She looked back at Nico. "Hey, Neeks. Can you shadowtravel everyone here?"

He groaned. "Shadowtraveling is hard, people! I can, but there's no chance I'll be fighting. See ya."

Thalia waved her hand through the mist. Before the image dissolved, I saw a flight of silver Hunters' arrows streak past her.

"We have to go," Jason said. "Kay. Everyone – sorry, Neeks, man, - hold onto his shoulder, and let's go."

"You're not a praetor anymore, man," Percy said, but he did as Jason said, and Nico shadowtraveled away.

When we came out, it was even darker than back in New York, since we were so much farther west. Maybe an hour earlier. Anyway, we could hear the screams, howls, shrieks, grunts, moans, and various other noises of the monster army.

We were standing on a hilltop. Behind us was the famous junkyard where Bianca had died. In front of us was a desert plain. And on that desert plain was an army of the most terrifying monster army I've ever had the misfortune to see. Any monster, name it. And then each of those monsters times a few hundred.

The Hunters were stationed just next us, firing arrows faster than my eye could follow. Their hands were a blur, up to their quivers and down to their bows, nocking, pulling back, and firing within the space of two seconds. Each shot turned a monster to dust, but there were too many.

"Hold the hill!" Thalia called to us. "Keep the high ground!"

"You would think the gods could make another exception in their 'no direct involvement' rule for this," I grumbled. I drew my sword and faced the marching army. For once, the monsters seemed organized.

They were a hundred yards away. The Hunters' quivers never seemed to run out, and their arms were moving faster than ever. We had brought one child of Hecate with us, and she was shooting fireballs and lightning bolts. Leo was shooting fire, though he was making sure to keep up his strength. Jason summoned an occasional lightning bolt, and commanded the winds to throw a monster high up in the air, but we didn't affect the numbers at all. The desert was covered with them. They very well might just roll over the hill without losing any significant number of monsters.

Nico was lying flat on his back, exhausted. Frank had joined the Hunters in firing at the monsters, though he didn't fire nearly as fast. His special arrows exploded, sent up clouds of acid, or set traps, but it really didn't do anything to the army.

By now, so many monsters had been killed that a cloud of dust was rising from the army. But the Hunters started to tire, I could tell. They were firing slower.

Then the first monster touched the base of the hill. He instantly disappeared in a puff of smoke, of course, from a Hunter's arrow, but then the next line hit the hill. And the next. And the next. They just kept coming. Then the monsters to the left and right of the hill folded in on us. They charged.

The heroes fought well. Each one of them used their powers in the best way. But the monsters kept coming.

We killed so many that if there had been bodies left, we could have walled ourselves in. But we were tiring. Two Hunters had died in the five minutes of the battle, and four demigods. Piper had been wounded, and Frank had broken his shooting arm and passed out. Jason was flying just above the heads of the monsters, killing them with quick stabs to the head, but he was tiring faster than anyone.

I put myself well for a mortal. Having the ability to see through the mist helped. So did the fact I could fence when I lived with my family. But this wasn't fencing. I lost count of how many wounds I got, or how many monsters I killed. Many people think monsters are easy to defeat. They're not. Each one is as strong and fast as a regular human, and sometimes they have special powers. Demigods kill so many because they are so much stronger than a mortal. I, on the other hand, was a mortal. So it just came down to who was a better fighter.

Many times, actually, I had to be saved by a demigod fighting next to me. Once I got a monster's sword one centimeter away from my throat, but I was saved by slipping on the dewy grass and landing on my back. I finished off the monster with a quick upward thrust.

Then in the middle of fighting a Laistrygonian giant, I heard someone yelling, "Fall back! Back! To the junkyard!"

I turned and ran. Along with Percy and Nico, I fought my way through the thinnest group of monsters, and we joined the rest of the group. We climbed onto a pile of junk. The monsters charged toward us, but the distance gave us a tiny bit of breathing space. The archers in the group fired off three arrows apiece, twenty for the hunters, then they were on us again. I turned to Nico, wondering if he was strong enough to fight.

He was gone.

I fought my way along the line, toward Hazel, who was fighting a squad of dracaenae. I killed one, a Hunter's arrow took another, and Hazel killed the last two. As I fought, I asked Hazel if she knew where Nico was.

"No," she said, sparing a quick glance behind her. "Haven't seen him since we got here."

"Okay, thanks," I said. I looked around again. The Hunters had fallen back, and were covering the fighters on the front lines.

"Thalia!" I shouted.

From somewhere in the fight she shouted, "What?"

"Why are we here?"

"Prophecy!"

I didn't know what that meant. I shrugged and kept fighting. I fenced with a dracaena for a bit, then thrust through an opening and she disintegrated into dust.

I charged into the line. There was no way Nico could be captured, right? He was the most powerful demigod in history. But he was drained.

I blocked a strike from a Cyclops, kicked a telkhine in the face, then took the Cyclops' head. The telkhine was small enough for me to pick up and heave over the fighting, landing on a spear tip. A Laistrygonian swung his fist at me, but I dodged and stabbed him through the gut.

As he crumbled, a giant came up and slammed an axe down at me, missing me by a foot when I jumped away. He was one of the smaller ones, eight or nine feet tall. I jumped as high as I could, stabbing the sword through his chest and hanging on. As he crumbled, though, I saw a familiar dark shape being carried through the monsters' lines.

I yelled and kicked off. As I landed, I swung my sword, cutting through the back of another monster. I punched and shoved my way through the tightly packed army, so tight that they couldn't attack me very well. I used my sword when it got too thick.

I could se Nico being carried away, by two empousai. The thought that they were going to suck his blood made me force my way through harder.

Then I saw a blond head also forcing his way through the monsters. A Cyclops blocked his way, raising his club, but I sliced through his back. With a wail, he turned to dust.

Will Solace jumped through, and landed next to me. "Hey," he nodded.

"Hey," I nodded back. We fought our way through the monsters and came up to the two demons carrying Nico by the shoulders and ankles. I stabbed one through the chest, and Will took the other one out with a roundhouse kick.

We grabbed Nico, and started to drag him back. But he wasn't light, and there were too many monsters. Nico groaned, but he was still unconscious.

Then Jason shot through the air, grabbed Nico under the arms, and flew2 back to out lines.

"Well, that's great," I said. "Now what do we do?"

Again, we were fighting back to back. We fought well, but the monsters were just overwhelming us when…

Something sucked on us, like a vacuum. We flew through nothing, and landed on our feet next to a tired-looking Hazel. "Hey guys, " she said weakly.

"Thanks," I said. "We needed that."

"Yeah, well, try to take care of yourselves better next time," she said. She smiled, then her eyes rolled up in her head and she collapsed.

I carried her to the Hunters. But the battle continued, and it was not going well for us. We had lost another two Hunters and two demigods. Our numbers were lessening.

Then suddenly, as I stepped backwards, I tripped over something. I jumped to my feet, killed the monster with a shattering blow, and looked at what I had tripped over.

Pandora's jar. _The gift has been given,_ I heard in my mind. It would appear, as it had to Percy, when I felt most like giving up.

Five books. One year. The _pithos_ worked fast to be given to its next owner.

I ignored it, though in the back of my head I thought, _I maybe could use it to bargain with. Maybe it wouldn't destroy the cave. The cave wouldn't matter, would it? Just a hole in the cliff. Tartarus could never destroy Olympus._

Of course, now I know it was a lot more than just a hole in rock. And that yes, Tartarus could very well destroy Olympus. But there was an urge.

I reached for the jar, but suddenly a Cyclops' club smacked me in the chest, sending me backward into a pile of metal scraps. He grinned and came toward me. An empousa followed. But then she stopped. She looked at the jar. She smiled an evil, toothy smile, and took the jar.

Now, if I had known then what I know now about the cave and Olympus being connected, I would have panicked and probably done something stupid. But as it was, there was just enough urgency to let me kill the Cyclops with a nice thrust and run after the empousa, waving to the Hunters to shoot her down. They did.

I picked up the jar. I felt like I could see the spirit of Hope inside, as Rachel had.

Then a monster charged at me. I sidestepped, tripped it into a pile of metal, and ran up to where Thalia was.

"Hey," I said.

She looked at me. "Hey, you're the kid who was fighting Alabaster yesterday!"

"Yeah," I said. "That's me. Hey, I don't know you too well, but—"

"Nope," she said, cutting me off. "I'm a Hunter. No dating, nothing."

"Not a date," I said. "I was just asking if you could keep this up here with your Hunters. It's Pandora's jar. Tartarus wants it, I think."

She shrugged. "Fine. I'll keep it safe."

I thanked her and slid down to the lines.

But the battle was a losing one, as I've said before. We were falling back, slowly but surely. The seven were all alive, so were Nico and Will, but there were plenty of dead demigods and Hunters.

Thalia seemed more agitated than I think the situation merited. A few times when I was fighting near her, she said something about the prophecy.

"What about the prophecy," I asked her.

"Child of Hades' ground," she said. "Bianca was a – ha! – child of Hades, and she is – oof! – buried here."

 _If any victory shall be found, Twill be on Hades' child's ground._ The prophecy had said.

"But what if it's their victory?" I asked, decapitating a monster.

"Let's hope it's not," Thalia said.

I kept fighting.


	12. If Any Victory Blah Blah Blah

As I fought, I kept glancing around to see what was happening in the battle. Hoping, I guess, to see some kind of victory take place. But nothing.

I fought my way through to Nico, who looked like he was going to drop again. I told him, "You should take a quick one-minute break."

"No way," he said, slicing a telkhine in half.

I told him about Thalia's opinion on the child of Hades' ground.

He shrugged. "Hope it comes before I die, then," was all he said.

And at that moment, the sun opened up, or a laser got blasted in my face, or something. I staggered back, blinking the light out of my eyes.

It was an…angel? No. A woman. A goddess, with golden wings, laurel wreaths all over her, and an incredibly complex hairdo.

"Hey, Nico," I said.

"Yeah?" he answered, staring at the bird woman.

"How do you say _victory_ in Ancient Greek?"

"Nike," he answered. "Oh my freaking gods."

Nike it was. We found victory, or rather, Nike. She sailed down to land in front of us.

"Mortal, what do you do here?"

"I'm fighting," I said, not minding the break. The monsters behind her seemed confused. They dropped their weapons and stared, slack-jawed, at the sky.

"With the demigods and Hunters? But no matter. Son of Hades, what know you of the new prophecy?"

"I'm on the quest," he said. He recited the prophecy.

"Good," she said. "Well, you have found victory. I, Nike, goddess of victory. And I will give you victory over these enemies."

We both fell over ourselves thanking her, but she held out a hand. "For a price."

We stopped. "What price?" Nico asked cautiously.

"Well, Hope, for one thing. The gods have decided you are not able to take care of it well enough, Jake Siaki. And secondly, I require one of you to pledge your allegiance to me. Your promise to be my champion. I have not had a champion in a long time."

"I accept this," I said instantly. The goddess raised an eyebrow. "So?"

She held out a hand and the _pithos_ appeared in it. "So you will be my champion, mortal?"

"Yes, Lady Nike."

"Very well. Swear this on the River Styx: That you will serve me, fight for me, join my side in any war, and support me at all times."

I did.

As I said the last word, I suddenly felt…more competitive? Just a bit. But I had a strange urge to challenge the son of Hades to a duel.

"Very good, Jake Siaki," Nike said. "Farewell. I give you complete victory over the monsters."

She disappeared in all her divine glory. I knew enough to avert my eyes, or I would be burned to ashes.

Nico looked at me strangely. "How do you feel?" he asked me.

"Fine. Why?"

"Just wondering if you would be like a child of Nike. All exclamation points and capital letters." He smiled. "You're fine, though."

I shrugged. "Come on, we have a battle to win."

We did.

* * *

I don't know how we won. Obviously it was impossible, but we did. There seemed to be more of us, we were stronger, and there were less monsters.

Anyway, we cleared the field in a minute. The piles of monster dust blew away in the wind that sprang up. I rested on my sword.

"So, Annabeth," I said. "Is the prophecy complete?"

"Depends," she said. "No. It's not, I guess, because Tartarus hasn't tried to rise yet. That will come soon, though."

"What about Rick?"

"What about him? He's dead."

"Seems strange that he would self-destruct like that, though."

She shrugged and went over to Percy.

I went to the junkyard, where I found Nico kneeling by the destroyed Talos statue, closing his eyes and moving his lips. Will was standing at a respectful distance away.

Nico stood and opened his eyes. "Hey," he said to Will.

"We need to go," I said.

"Go where?" he asked.

"This is the last day. Tartarus rises today. That can't happen. Ring a bell?"

"Well, where do we go?" he asked.

"We need to go to his HQ." I said. "That would be his most obvious rising point."

Nico nodded. "Sounds right," he said. "But that's on the whole other side of the continent. How do we get there?"

"Shadowtravel?" I asked hopefully.

He sighed. "Not up to it. But—"

He whistled. Out of nowhere, a huge hellhound appeared. I forgot that it would be Mrs. O'Leary, and drew my sword. But Nico yelled, "Stop!"

"Oh," I said, feeling stupid. "Right."

"Hey girl," Nico said. "Can you take us to Rick Riordan's house?"

"WOOF!" she said, knocking pieces of junk off the tops of piles.

"Good," Nico said. "Will, Jake. Let's go."

We got onto Mrs. O'Leary's back. "Does she know where to go?" I asked Nico. He shrugged.

"I think so."

That's reassuring. Then she dove into the nearest shadow, and we disappeared.

Cold. Dark. Loud. Ridiculously fast. Percy may have liked it, but I didn't. And still don't.

We came out in a field. Right next to us was the HQ.

"Good girl," Nico said, patting the hellhound on the shoulder.

We got off. Mrs. O'Leary shuffled over to a tree and went to sleep.

"Okay," Will said, looking at the huge marble castle. "Who wants to stop Tartarus?"

We went inside.


	13. Why Would We Go BACK to Rick?

First of all: I really don't recommend going into a heavily guarded, enemy area with only three people.

If you'll think about it, fifty people can conceivably beat one hundred fifty, if the conditions are kind. Twenty people can beat sixty, if the skill level is ridiculously uneven. But there isn't really any way three people can beat ten, if you think about it. And definitely not a few hundred.

Secondly, we were all tired. I had gotten four hours of sleep in two days, and Will and Nico even less. Also, Nico was drained. His powers took a lot out of him.

Lastly: We didn't even know what we were doing. Looking back, I think we definitely should have gotten Annabeth and made a plan. But no.

Anyway, we stepped inside the door. Instantly, alarms blared. Two magicians on either side of the doors spun toward us, though they were too late to do anything. Nico knocked one out with a blow to the head, and Will slammed the other one into a closet. He threw a little pellet of something in, and closed the door. A flash of light came out from the edges of the doorframe.

A trio of telkhines was waddling past, unarmed. Each of us killed one. Then we charged down a side hallway, hoping they wouldn't look for us here.

We were wrong. As we charged around a corner, we met three demigods with spears.

"Surrender, son of Hades," one of them said.

"Not a chance," Nico said. We attacked.

When you have the shorter blade, get in closer, I had been told countless times in my short fencing time.

I did. His spear was useless now. He blocked my first strike with the haft, then dropped it and jumped away. He drew his sword.

I fought with him for a moment, making sure I knew what was going on with the other two. After a minute, I realized I was outmatched.

I hopped away. He lunged for me, but I knocked the sword away with a parry I'd learned from watching Nico fight. While he was off balance, I stabbed another of the enemy demigods in the side, the one that had been fighting Will. He gasped and sidestepped, but he collided with the last enemy's sword arm. While they were confused, Nico and Will disarmed them and sent them flying down the hallway from a punch each.

My opponent swung down at my head. I put up my sword to block the blow…and my sword shattered.

From some freak of luck, none of the pieces hurt me. But he drew back and started a stab. I was dead. Then I slipped on a sword fragment, and landed on my back. The thrust went over me. He raised his sword for another swing that would have killed me.

But Nico pointed at him. A line of black energy blasted from his hand and hit the demigod in the chest. He was flung against the wall, dead.

Nico slumped against the wall. The energy had been too much. He was too tired.

Will took a small bottle of liquid out of his small side pouch, and gave it to Nico, who drank it. "Unicorn draught," he explained to me. "Works better on him than nectar."

Nico fell asleep.

Will looked panicked. "Wake up," he said, shaking poor Nico.

"Let him sleep," I said. "We have a while, and no one'll come down this hallway."

Jinxed again. As I said the words, two monsters came from either side.

I glanced at Will. "Can you take those two?" I asked, pointing. He nodded, though he didn't seem too sure. "All right," I said. I charged down the hallway at the other two dracaenae.

They hissed and stabbed at me with their spears. But as I ran, I suddenly felt…stronger? I felt victorious, for sure. I would definitely win this fight.

As I ran past the dead demigod, I grabbed his short sword. I lunged for the closest of the snake women. She put up her spear, which clattered against my sword. I kicked her in the stomach. She doubled over, hissing.

The other one stabbed at me. I deflected the spear, then punched her in the face with my free hand. She howled and staggered back.

The first one straightened, but too late. I stabbed her in the stomach. With a wail, she disintegrated. The other one was still holding her face, not seeing what I was doing. Which was the same as I had done to the first one: slicing through the chink in the armor. She turned to dust.

I charged back to Will. His monsters had been the same as mine, two dracaenae. But he wasn't doing nearly as well. He had gotten a cut on his sword arm, and neither of his enemies were hurt.

"Gotcha," I said, as one of the headless dracaenae crumbled to dust from my sword. The other one spared a glance at the pile of dust, which was a mistake. A stab from my sword knocked the spear out of her hand; and a kick to her legs knocked her onto the floor.

"Hero," she said, "Tartarusss will torture your soul for eternity!"

"Yeah, well," I said. "That's kind of what we're trying to avoid, right now. Tell us: how does Tartarus plan to rise?"

She hissed. "Never, never will I betray Tartarusss," she said. "Your bonessss will crumble! Your blood will boil when he…"

She turned to dust at a downward slice to the chest.

"Maybe now Nico can get up," Will said, breathing hard. "You okay?"

"Yeah," I said. "Nike's champion, and everything. Wasn't touched."

"Good," he said, wrapping a bandage around his cut. "Let's take him with us. We can drop him whenever we see any more enemies."

"Nice," I said, grinning. "Real considerate of you there, Will."

He shrugged. "Let's go. Nico wouldn't want us to jeopardize the quest because of him."

We carried Nico for a while, thankfully not meeting any monsters. Then we came to a door that said, 'Authorized Personnel Only."

"Okay," Will said. "This is probably it."

Since I was carrying his feet, I set him down and tried the door, sword ready. The door swung open easily.

Inside was a bare, white room. And standing inside were two demigods, two magicians, two Valhallan warriors and…Rick Riordan.

If I had been any more shocked, I probably would've stood there like an idiot, letting the enemies hack me to pieces. However, Nike's influence kept me alive. As soon as I saw enemies, I slammed the door shut, my mind filtering out Rick being alive, since the information wasn't urgent and/or necessary.

Will had seen them, so together we hauled Nico as far enough away from the door as we could. Without saying anything, we took up positions on both sides of the door.

The door slammed open right away. The magicians were the first to come out. They both were killed, one to each of us. We didn't have time to try to keep them alive.

Then the demigods came out, and each of them attacked one of us, followed by the Valhallan warriors.

I fought. And fought. Normally, I would have died almost instantly. Being with the Greek warriors _and_ having the support of Nike helped me. But fighting two experts on all swordfighting is impossible for all but the best. I got a cut on my arm and chest, then one of them disarmed me and dragged me into the room with Rick.

Will followed, then one of the Valhallans went and brought in Nico. Once we were all inside, Rick waved his hand and the warriors trooped out. Four more demigods marched in, closed the door behind them, and took positions around the room.

"Hello, heroes," Rick said. "Glad to see you could make it."

No one gave him the satisfaction of an answer.

"Well, let's see. We have the son of Hades. The son of Apollo. And the mortal who somehow managed to become Nike's champion; I wonder how."

Silence.

"Well, anyway, you can't stop Tartarus rising. Notice how, in most of the prophecies it actually _says_ the questers will succeed? Well? Nothing like that in the prophecy."

No one said anything.

"Well, my son will be here in a few minutes with the final ingredients for Tartarus rising. Now I can tell you my plan, of course, since I don't plan on leaving you. Tartarus will rise, use my body as his host, then he will assume his true form. When I burn away, I will go straight to the Isles of the Blest, since he will have total control over Hades."

 _He's mad,_ I mouthed to Will. He barely nodded.

"Then Tartarus will destroy all of Western Civilization, the gods will fade, and everything will crumble into his domain. Except, of course, for the Underworld. Nothing can destroy the Underworld. And only Chaos itself can destroy Tartarus when he is fully awake."

Wait a minute. His _son_ would be bringing the final ingredients?

He said something into a speaker that I didn't hear. He listened, seemingly confused.

"Go, bring Haley here," he said to the guards. They saluted, and left. We were tied, so we were no threat to Rick.

We waited. A minute. Five minutes.

Then the door opened. Haley entered, followed by the four demigod guards. The door they left open.

Rick smiled. "Haley, produce the final ingredient."

Haley reached to his sword. The guards tensed.

"It's contained in the blade," Haley said, exasperated.

If I could have spoken, I would have cursed him for being a traitor, but for some reason I found I couldn't talk. A spell on the room, I later learned.

He drew his sword. He turned to one of the guards "Here—"

His sword flashed. Once. It sank into the demigod's chest and he sank to the floor. The other three had their swords halfway out of their sheaths when he spun and sliced through the second one's chest. He fell. The other two attacked Haley. He blocked one of their thrusts, dodged a slice, kicked one of them in the stomach, hard, and spun around to the third one. He parried twice, then used the same series of moves he had on me in Rick's bedroom. The demigod's sword clattered to the ground. Haley slammed his sword hilt onto the demigod's head. He collapsed, unconscious.

Haley spun around to the last one, still gasping for air. He brought the flat of his sword down on the half-blood's head, knocking him out.

Rick dashed from his chair, running for the door. Haley kicked one of his legs as Rick passed him, and he tumbled to the ground. Haley slammed the door.

He cut Will and my ties. We got to our feet, each choosing a sword from the unconscious or dead demigods.

Rick scrambled to his feet. But he didn't try to run, just glared sullenly at Haley.

Haley shook his head. "You've gone mad. Dionysus will cure you, I'm sure. But for now," he smiled. "I can't have you following me."

He slammed his hilt onto Rick's head. Rick sank to the ground.

"Exactly," Haley said. He looked at me. "From the Princess Bride?"

I recognized the line, from where the Dread Pirate Roberts knocks out Inigo.

"Okay," he said. "The seven are waiting with the hellhound outside. We need to go. Quickly."

"You followed us?" I said, incredulously. "How?"

"Well, seems that Rick purposely built his HQ right above an entrance to the Labyrinth, one of the new ones that was created when it shifted after Daedalus' death. Hazel brought us here as soon as she woke up. We hadn't thought you'd be in so much trouble, though."

"I thought you had betrayed us," I admitted.

He shrugged. "I had for a long time. I'm better now, though."

"What was the last ingredient?"

He shrugged again. "Not the slightest idea, though it was a perfect cover story."

We picked Nico up and went outside. The seven were sitting by Mrs. O'Leary. Halfway to them, Nico woke up. He blinked for exactly two seconds, then jumped upright.

"What's going on?" he asked, confused.

"We'll explain when we're at a safe distance," I said. Alarms blared from the HQ. "Yeah, we need to leave."

We ran over to Mrs. O'Leary and the seven. Jason and Hazel gave Nico a hug, since they were the only ones who really could. Everyone else hugged Will. I was left out, unfortunately, until Percy high-fived me and clapped me on the back. Eh, it was the best I'd get.

We used Mrs. O'Leary to shadow-travel one last time, though she whimpered when Nico told her. He promised her a lot of dog treats, though, so she did.

We teleported back to Camp. As we came out, though, Annabeth realized something. "The rest of the demigods are in Rick's HQ!"

We all looked at each other, stunned. I had forgotten about them. So had everyone else, apparently.

"What about the Hunters and the rest of the half-bloods that were in New Mexico?" Nico asked her.

"The Hunters have this way they move faster than normal, though still much slower than shadowtraveling or centaurs," she said. "Imagine the fastest car in the world, driving constantly. That's how they normally get around. Sometimes Lady Artemis gives them a quick lift, which is how they got to New Mexico. They're bringing the rest of the demigods with them the normal way right now, though most of them weren't happy about it."

"Okay," I said. "But what about the demigods in the HQ? And what about Tartarus?"

She checked them off on her fingers. "Demigods: can wait. Tartarus: we need to tell Chiron."

We sighed. But we went and told Chiron. Everything.


	14. How Many Times Are We Visiting Rick?

**Hey hey hey there, my good people! Thank you for coming back, and, I assume, staying with me for so long! I love the support! Thanks to: madwamoose, WiseGirlGeek, Kori A Grayson, Marcus Bond, and DrakonOwl21195 for the very kind reviews. (Kori, I do hope that your review was meant to be a good thing. Maybe not.)**

 **So, Read and Review, my cookies, biscuits, slushies, (dang, writers give their readers weird names) and good people!**

* * *

Once Chiron had heard the story in full, we decided we should go back to the HQ and interrogate Rick. Now, I may be wrong: but it was seeming to me like everyone was treating this with much less respect and urgency than it deserved. _Tartarus was rising, people!_ You would think we could have I.M.'ed Chiron, but _no_. You would think Nico, Will, and I could get a plan ready before we started out, but _no._ They all seemed like they thought that it would be in a few years, and they had all the time in the world to do this, that, and the other thing.

Something was wrong.

We had eighteen hours before Tartarus rose.

It was six in the morning. Still dark, but light enough that we could see where we were going. And Nico had plenty of shadows to travel to.

He took Will and me back to the HQ. He passed out instantly in the shadows. Will was concerned, of course, but he told me Nico would be fine if he had a good long rest with 'no more Underworld-y stuff.'

Will and I, however, were not the fighters on the team. It seemed unfair that the half-blood with the ability to destroy an army on a good day, had to also be carting us around through the shadows.

When we stepped inside, we started to run, remembering how the alarm had blared the last time. We got twelve steps before we realized everything was silent. As we listened more closely, we heard…nothing.

Literally nothing. No flickering of lights, no movement of air, no tramp of feet. Nothing.

We looked at each other. Then, suddenly, I felt…so…tired.

Looking at Will, I saw a sleepy look on his face. He turned his head to look at me, the small movement seemingly paining him, and said, "I'm tired."

Slowly.

I knew in my mind that we needed to be continuing on this quest, and that some force was messing us up, but there was no inclination to move.

I took a slow, exhausting step to the wall, and slid down it until I was touching the floor. I closed my eyes.

Suddenly, like a bucket of ice water splashed in my face, the feeling of exhaustion was gone. I leaped to my feet.

"What was that?" Will asked, sounding panicked, at the same time that the alarms blared. Instantly I heard a roar of fury from somewhere on a higher floor.

I ran down a hallway. "Come on!" I shouted to Will. It was the same one we had gone down before. He nodded and came after me.

"We need to find the door we went through before!" I yelled over my shoulder. Rounding a hallway, I saw two demigods in front of me. Too close for any mortal reaction.

Then time seemed like it slowed. I checked what I could do. Sword out? No, I had less than a second. Stop? No, the momentum would carry me past them five steps at least.

It was Nike's influence of victory in battle. Possibly Athena had mercy on me from somewhere in Olympus, too, but as they stared at me, confused, I ducked between them. An elbow to one's face, and kicked the legs out from the other. Then the arm that I had elbowed with came around as I spun, hitting the falling demigod in the gut.

They both slumped against the wall, stunned. I skidded to a stop. Will came around the corner, and ran into me. I grabbed his shoulders, steadying him, and then drew my sword.

With the hilt, I knocked both of them out. Their weapons I threw as far as I could down the hallway away from us, for some reason. Not sure why.

Anyway, we kept going. We rounded another corner. This time, my sword was ready to fight whatever was around the corner. Nothing.

Then a flash of light and I went flying over something that had appeared at my feet.

I jumped up, having almost been decapitated by my sword, and stared at what had tripped me.

The _pithos_.

Gods.

Nike had held onto it for…what? An hour?

I picked it up carefully. A note was taped again to the lid. So, was the _pithos_ just a way of getting messages to me or what?

The note said,

 _Champion of Nike, Jake Siaki. We, the Olympians, think it wise that you keep this for a while. Return it to us when the quest is over._

It was signed by all the Olympians except Athena. Nike had also signed it.

Except Athena, huh? The 'wise' plan apparently hadn't been approved by the goddess of wisdom.

Something seriously seemed wrong. Even the gods had it happening to them, the weird thing where it seemed like they just didn't care.

Like they were too tired to care.

Then another flash of light blazed through the hallway. I knew before looking that it was a god.

It was.

Looking at this god made me feel tired, like down at the door. Suddenly, my mind was filled with thoughts of warmth and soft things.

Will punched my shoulder. That woke me up.

"Who are you?" I asked.

He smiled lazily. "I am Hypnos, mortal. God of sleep."

And with that, I passed out.

* * *

When I woke, I was still in the hallway. We were too far away for natural light, and the indoor lighting was the same, so I couldn't tell what time it was. Will was asleep near me. I shook him urgently.

"Will! Will, wake up!" I yelled in his ear.

"Uhhh," he pushed me off. "No…"

"Will!"

He suddenly jerked awake, barely missing my head. "Wha…what time is it?"

I looked around. "Dunno. You have a watch?"

He shook his head.

I pulled him up. "Come on. Tartarus will rise any minute now, probably."

We ran down the hallway.

The wrong way.

After a few more minutes of running, I was confused. "Hey Will…" I said, uncertain.

"Yeah?"

"We should have been at the door by now…"

Then my head whipped around. "THE _PITHOS_!" I yelled.

It was gone. I remembered that there hadn't been anything down the hallway when I'd looked, right before I'd woken Will.

I sat, staring ahead. "Hope…hope is gone…"

"Maybe a monster took it and brought it to Rick," he said.

That was another thing. No one had mentioned anything about Rick still…being…alive.

Now I understood Hypnos had been messing with our minds, but still. We should have been better.

But there were still some questions: Why did they really want the _pithos_? Why was Hypnos helping Tartarus? How had the freaking _Olympians_ been affected?

Scratch that. There were plenty of questions.

I stood. But now we were lost.

I started down the hallway, Will behind me. Then we came to a door. A simple, unimportant looking door. But one that looked familiar.

I sliced through it with my sword. Steel's no match for Celestial Bronze.

And inside were all the captured demigods.

* * *

 **Ooh, exciting, I wonder what's gonna happen next...**

 **NO I BLOODY DON'T CAUSE I'M THE ONE WHO WROTE IT! PSYCH!**

 **Did I spell that right?**

 **Anyway, survive!**


	15. Pro Tip: Don't Breath the Pink Stuff

**Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Please review... Holiday spirit and everything...**

* * *

As soon as we freed them all and armed them, then told them what had happened, we started down the hall. I remembered where they had taken me to get to this room. Soon we came to the same door: Authorized Personnel Only.

Travis Stoll grinned. "That means us right?"

I opened the door. Without checking what was inside, we poured in, automatically ringing the room, our backs to the walls.

Unfortunately, not looking inside was our big mistake. Because when everyone had come inside, and we checked the enemies, we found that there were five dracaenae.

And the door slammed shut behind us.

The poor dracaenae never stood a chance, of course. They dissolved into dust in ten seconds.

But the door was shut. And locked. I stabbed it with my sword, expecting to cut through it like plastic wrap, but there was nothing. The sword just hit the door like a normal sword, bouncing off and jarring my arm.

Then the AC vents hissed. Pale pink smoke started to trickle in, slowly.

A Hecate camper examined it. She touched it tentatively with a finger. Nothing.

Then a demigod from the other side of the room gasped and collapsed. Pink smoke trickled from his mouth.

Lou Ellen dashed to him, checked his pulse, looked at his eyes, and felt the smoke herself.

"It's knockout gas," she announced finally. "Breathe it in; you're asleep for an hour."

Will and I looked at each other. Hypnos?

Then another camper screamed and fell. She coughed and choked for a minute, trying to get the gas out of her lungs, but she soon fell asleep.

Then some of the half-bloods panicked. They ran to the middle of the circle, and to the door, screaming and moving the gas around even more. I grabbed one of them, a son of Demeter, and yelled "Everyone! Shut up! Stop moving!"

No one listened. With a groan, I flung the thrashing kid into the gas, where he breathed in a lungful and collapsed.

One of the panicking campers swung his sword at the vent, probably trying to fan the mist back in. But he miscalculated the length of his sword, and knocked the filter off.

And the room was flooded with dark purple mist.

"It's too concentrated—" Lou Ellen started to say, but then she fell, unconscious.

Will, Travis, Kate Gardner, Malcolm, everyone fell asleep.

Everyone except me.

Even when I breathed it in, the smoke didn't affect me. I looked around. The mist had stopped coming out of the vents. All the gas had been released into the room at once, knocking everyone out. But the vent was off.

I climbed up to it. I looked down at the floor, full of heroes, mostly obscured by the now-pink gas.

"Bye, guys," I said. I crawled through into the air conditioning.

* * *

Something I learned about air conditioning ducts: They're not all that spy movies make them out to be.

They're dusty, hence the need for filters. They're cold, duh, and they're dark.

It wasn't a great experience.

I crept along from vent to vent, peering through. Most of the rooms were empty. Some of them were occupied by monsters and/or demigods and/or magicians and/or Valhallan warriors. One was a monster changing room, which immediately made me want to burn my eyes out. I didn't find any sign of Rick, though, or any preparations for Tartarus' rising.

Then I hit metaphorical gold. Rick's bedroom.

Do I sound like a creepy stalker? Sorry. But here was everything I was looking for. Notes, charts, plans, hopefully.

If everything went well, I could stop Tartarus from rising.

If everything went well.

Which it didn't.

I cut through the vent easily, dropping into Rick's room semi-soundlessly. I went to his bedside table, first thing. Nothing in the drawer.

Chest of drawers. Nothing. I dumped everything out, but all I found were clothes and more clothes.

Bookshelves. Books. Nothing important; most of them I'd seen before, the ones I hadn't I checked to see if they were fake. No luck.

On a shelf was a collection of every book he'd ever written, in every edition ever released. They were all in pristine condition and signed by himself. Kinda weird, but there was nothing to do with Tartarus anywhere around them.

Closet. More clothes, more books, some random baseball equipment. Nothing.

Then the creepy looking wardrobe, which I'd saved for last, wondering if there was a monster inside it.

What do they say? You'll find what you're looking for in the last place you look.

Very true. When I opened the door, a red laser scanner fanned out and scanned me. I held my breath. Then an automated voice said, "Demigod blood: Found. Security: Deactivated."

The lights inside the wardrobe turned on. Inside, the walls were reinforced with Celestial Bronze, and neatly organized on the shelves were…notes. Papers. Journals. Everything.

Flipping through some pages, I found a recent journal. Here's what I read:

 _The Olympian demigods attacked. Our doppelganger was killed in the ensuing fight; possible Tartarus intervention? Pithos taken into Olympus._

Not anymore. Now they had it…

Footsteps. Coming down the hallway.

I ducked inside the wardrobe and slammed the doors behind me. Luckily, they were balanced, so I didn't lose any fingers.

The moment the wardrobe closed, the room's door swung open. I couldn't see, but I heard at least three people enter the room.

I heard Rick Riordan's voice: "…and I'll just put it in here."

He walked toward the wardrobe.

My sword flew out, ready. He opened the door…and I flashed the swordpoint to his neck.

He yelped, and jumped a foot into the air. "Mortal!" he squeaked.

"Yes, mortal," I said. "The mortal who broke into your base and defeated your army or monsters. The mortal who is now a champion of Nike."

I looked past him. Two demigods were frozen at the door. They were staring at me with a mixture of shock and hatred.

Rick was holding the _pithos_. "Give me the jar," I said.

He handed it to me, shaking.

I checked the seal. It hadn't been opened.

"Why didn't you open it?" I asked.

"Because…because…Tartarus wants it when he rises," Rick said to me.

Suddenly the two demigods straightened. Their eyes snapped closed, then opened again, revealing solid black. Their mouths opened, and a voice came out.

Tartarus.

"Mortal fool," he hissed. "That jar will be used in my plans. And using the man as a hostage will not work. He is nothing to me; I can find a host elsewhere."

The two controlled demigods stepped forward, then without any further warning, they raised their swords and cut Rick down.

I stepped back.

"Now," Tartarus continued, "GIVE ME THE PITHOS!"

The two demigods lunged forward.

I tossed the jar behind me into the piles of paper. I slashed through one of their sword arms. The demigod hissed and changed his sword to the other arm.

I planted my foot in the other one's chest. He stumbled backward, crashing into the bed. The other one stabbed at me. I knocked it away, then stabbed him through the chest. He groaned in his normal voice (or so I assumed) and fell to the ground.

The other one soundlessly rose to his feet and charged at me. I waited…waited…then when he was almost too close, I sidestepped and slammed my sword flat onto the side of his head, changing his course to crash into the wardrobe's open door.

I grabbed the _pithos_. I ran out of the room and down the hall, the hole in Rick's room having been repaired.

I found the door to the outside surprisingly quickly. I dashed outside…then remembered that there was no way for me to get to Camp. No shadow-travelers for me to go with.

I stood by the nearest road, trying to hitchhike or something, though there was no one, I knew, who would take me to Camp. Just maybe closer.

A minivan picked me up. Just one guy in it, listening to music on the radio. "Hey, man," he said. "Where're you goin'?"

"Somewhere really out of the way," I said. "But can you just drop me off when I'm close enough?"

"I'm not goin' anywhere," he said. "I'll take you the whole way."

I shrugged. If he wanted to take me to a strawberry farm, so be it. I hopped in. "Thanks," I said. "That way."

He drove me kind of close. I hopped out. "Thanks a lot," I said. He grinned and drove away. I watched the car drive down the road. Then in a flash of light it disappeared. Apollo.

Anyway, I passed the camp boundaries without a problem. Peleus the dragon was asleep, and the cabins' remains were smoldering. A few tents were set up. I went to the nearest one. Inside was Chiron.

"Chiron!" I said.

He looked at me. "What is it, mortal child? Where are Will and Nico?"

"Captured," I said.

"Where?"

"In Rick Riordan's house," I said. "Knockout gas. But now I know where it is. We can attack."

"Who is there to attack?" he asked. "There are only about sixteen half-bloods here. Then the Hunters have been reduced badly. And the gods have withdrawn to Olympus."

"The Party Ponies?" I suggested. He shook his head.

"They are no match for the powers of Tartarus. Anyway, they are too spread out."

"So that's it," I said. "There's no one to help."

Grover stepped in. "The nature spirits will help," he said.

Chiron looked away. "I've told you before, Grover," he said sadly. "The satyrs and dryads cannot fight if they wish to survive."

"That's what we have to do," Grover said. 'We have forty-seven satyrs here right now, helping rebuild the cabins. Then we have Tyson, and the sixteen half-bloods. If the mortal can show us where the demigods are in Riordan's house, we can free them and come back here. We don't need to launch an attack, just get them out of there."

Chiron didn't answer for a while. Then he sighed. "Grover, you are a lord of the Wild," he said. "You are the leader of the satyrs. Do what you think right."

Grover nodded. "Come on," he said to me. We walked out of the tent.


	16. We Go to Olympus and It's Really Bright

**Hey everyone! Here's the next more-than-mediocre chappie in my epic epic! R &R!**

* * *

I led the team to the house. After a quick explanation of what had happened to the sixteen demigods, we suited up in light Greek armor, the satyrs armed themselves, Tyson grabbed his stick, and we got the harpies to drive us to a safe distance. Annabeth and another Athena camper got a plan ready.

When we attacked the house, we would go inside. I would take Jason and Percy, the two strongest demigods, to the room where the rest of the campers were sleeping. The rest of the group would create a diversion close to the doors.

Once we'd found the demigods, we would contact Annabeth, and she would follow the directions to the room. We would take as many demigods as we could carry, and get out.

Again: a great plan, if it had worked.

First of all, when we got there, the door was closed and locked. Obviously it would be, but we hadn't been expecting it for some reason.

We cut through it with our swords pretty quickly, but the alarms blared as soon as we touched it.

But the plan really fell apart when we stepped inside. Waiting for us were twenty demigods, in full Greek battle armor, in formation and with spear and swords. As soon as the door fell in, the formation charged, spears out.

Before I had time to wonder, _seriously, where are all these demigods from,_ they had killed three satyrs. Grover yelped.

Then we crashed into them, and they dropped spears and drew their swords.

It was a hard battle. The enemy demigods fought hard and well, and the satyrs took the brunt of it. Three of our demigods were killed, along with twelve satyrs. We defeated about half of them before they broke and ran. Frank, Leo, and Piper (on her cornucopia), blasted after them, bringing down four more. Then we led our teams in the different directions we were going.

As soon as Jason, Percy, and I got out of sight of he other team, we heard shouts and crashes of sword on sword and armor. Percy looked as if he wanted to run back, but he sighed and followed me.

We came to the right door pretty soon. On the outside, it showed that it was Celestial Bronze, explaining why I couldn't cut through it before. There was, however, a passcode panel on the wall.

I looked at Jason. He nodded and pointed at it. A bolt of lightning flew through the air, hitting the panel and shooting electricity all over it. The door shuddered and flew open.

Inside where the demigods, mostly sleeping. Two of them had woken up and were sitting against the far wall.

When they saw us, they ran forward. "Do you have anyone else to carry the rest of us?" they asked.

I nodded. "They're coming."

I spoke into my walkie-talkie. "Hey, Annabeth. We're ready."

"Okay," she responded. "Coming."

We waited. Then they came pounding down the hallway, swords out, covered in blood and monster dust.

Quickly, without saying too much, they grabbed the arms and legs of the unconscious demigods and began to carry them out.

Some of the demigods didn't carry anyone, so they could look out for enemies coming. Grover followed behind, holding a basket full of the plants of the fallen satyrs.

Once we got outside, we loaded the demigods into the vans. We got in, and drove away.

Wondering why it wasn't such a great plan? As we drove away, Jason asked, "Where's Piper?"

I glanced at Annabeth. She looked down. "Where?" Jason demanded, now looking scared.

"Back at the house," Annabeth said.

"What?" Jason roared. "GO BACK! Is she alive?"

"Yes," Annabeth said, tears in her eyes. "She's alive. They took her."

"Nico," Jason said, looking behind him at the son of Hades. "You have to bring us back there."

"No," I said urgently. "Jason, he's too tired. Stretched too thin. We need to defeat Tartarus. Someone must know what the Usurper's blood means."

"No," Jason said. "We go back now."

Nico groaned. "No," he said. "I can't do it."

"What do you mean you can't do it?" Jason yelled.

"Imagine you had to fly everyone like I did," Nico said. "You couldn't. Well, I used just as much of my energy shadow-traveling. The forced nap didn't help."

Jason glared at everyone in the car, including me. "Jake," he said. "We're going back."

* * *

Why me? My question exactly. It apparently was because it was my quest, though that seemed to be rather fluid at the moment.

He flew us back, long story short. We landed next to the building. He looked horrible.

"Jason," I said. "You okay?"

"I sure as Hades hope Nico was exaggerating what he said about shadow-traveling," he said, eyes closed.

"Knowing Nico, he's probably watering it down," I said. "Will you be any good in a fight?"

He shook his head. "Jake, I'm sorry to get you into this."

"What would you have done?" I asked. "How is it your fault?"

"I could have left you in Ohio," he said, smiling slightly.

"And let the dracaenae kill me? No thanks."

"Well, some of this is my fault, and I'm sorry for mixing you up in the world of the Greeks."

"It's as good as I hoped it would be," I said. And I meant it. If I died in Rick's house right now, I wouldn't wish to change a thing. This was what I had dreamed of since I was twelve and had read the books.

He pushed himself off the wall. "Let's go," he said. "Piper's waiting."

We went inside.

The door was still destroyed, so we went in. But immediately we came upon two telkhines, trying to repair some of the damage we'd done to…everything…

Luckily, they were unarmed. Unluckily, the moment they saw us one of them slapped his hand/paw/flipper against the wall, setting off a truly respectable alarm noise.

We cut them to dust, but a squad of magicians rounded the corner. One of them blasted a fireball at us, while the other three reached into the Duat and pulled out swords/staffs. Whatever. We ran down a side hallway.

When we came to a door, and no other direction to go, of course we chose door. I cut through it, Jason following.

We came out in a room. Three small, bedside-type tables, in a triangle. Each one holding a plate full of green liquid.

And in the center of the triangle, floating a foot off the ground, gagged, was Piper.

I defended the door. The magicians seemed content to fence with me while Jason tried to figure out what was going on with Piper. Every time he tried to step into the triangle she shook her head violently, so we assumed it was some sort of attack. I heard him behind me, asking yes or no questions, getting head movements as answers.

One of the magicians got too close. I went for the kill.

The other three fired spells at me. One of the spells hit the doorway, shaking the house. One of them hit the floor just behind me, leaving a gaping hole.

And the third one hit one of the little tables in the room, knocking it over.

And all Hades broke loose.

The green liquid spilled on the ground, immediately catching fire and burning fiercely. It ate through the wooden floor and hit the floor of the room below.

Piper dropped to the ground, ripping the gag out of her mouth and jumping away from the burning floor.

The magician who'd fired the spell screamed and turned to dust, like a monster.

And Tartarus appeared in the flames.

"Tartarus," I spat. "What do you want?"

He smiled. "Only to warn you, mortal. Hypnos has joined me. He has chosen well. The rest of the gods will be destroyed, and I will reign supreme over the world!"

He suddenly glared at me. "But you will be the one to try and stop me, won't you, Jacob Siaki? Think you, a mortal, to defeat one before whom GODS tremble? Learn from this moment, Jacob. And fear me. Usurper – pah!"

He vanished.

Jason had grabbed Piper. He grabbed me, and we flew out of the room. Looking back, I saw why. The other tables were shaking. Then, they fell.

The room behind us exploded.

We flew down the hallway, just ahead of the rolling waves of Greek Fire. Finally, the explosion ceased, and Jason fell to the floor. Piper and I lifted him, and carried him outside, deciding we wouldn't stay any longer in the place.

What we saw outside made me wish for Tartarus' image again.

Black storm clouds formed a funnel around the roof of the building.

Jason had a watch. I asked him the time. "One," he answered.

So Tartarus rises in…eleven hours? Fourth day breaks, right?

Not enough time. We needed the blood of the Usurper, whatever that was.

Suddenly, an image appeared in a rainbow in front of us. Annabeth came into focus.

"All right, guys. Listen and listen well. This is my last drachma. The usurper must be Zeus, right? He took the throne from Kronos. So…we need his golden ichor."

You must be freaking kidding me. Imagine the scene: Me, waltzing onto Olympus, (which, by the way, is off-limits to mortals,) and going up to the king of the freaking _world,_ and saying, "Hey, Zeus! Can you give me some blood?"

No. Just….no.

Jason might be able to, though. I looked at him with hope. "Hey, Jason? How about it? Ask your dad for just a bit of blood? Please?"

He shrugged. "If it'll stop Tartarus from rising, anything's possible."

I nodded at the image in the mist. "'Kay, Annabeth. Thanks."

She nodded, and swiped her hand through the mist.

"Hey, guys," I said. "Let's go get some godly blood."

* * *

 **So, how was Thanksgiving? Tell me, tell me. (Yeah, I'm a review hog. Not sorry.) Put the R in R &R, people! Survive!**


	17. Reyna Makes Trouble (In a Good Way)

**Hey everyone! Next chapter (duh)! Please review, follow, and/or fave! Thanks!**

* * *

We did what I had pictured. Going up to Olympus, which I had learned from and kept my hand on Jason's shoulder and closing my eyes.

Marching into the throne room. Well, except me of course. No _matter_ what, Zeus would refuse anything if I went in there.

I just sat on a bench outside and waited, eyes closed. Five minutes later, Jason came out, Piper with him.

"He says no." He answered my hopeful look, which I gave him at the risk of blinding myself.

"What? But…but…it's the only way!"

He sighed. "Says he's not the Usurper. Says it's someone else."

"Who?"

"Didn't say that much."

If I was Jason, or Percy, or pretty much any of the demigods, I'd be sick and tired of the gods keeping everything secret from us. I mean seriously. But – Jason seemed to take it okay.

I kept my hand on his shoulder as we walked back to the elevator. No one stopped us.

When we went to the lobby of the Empire State – _then_ he got mad.

"USELESS!" he roared, startling two people in the lobby and the security guard. "WHAT'S THE POINT OF BEING A GOD AND _MY FATHER_ IF HE CAN'T ANSWER A _SIMPLE FREAKING QUESTION_!"

The guard waved at us, in a 'get out' kind of way.

We cleared out, Jason still grumbling.

* * *

When we got back to Camp...Tartarus' army attacked.

What? Yes. Tartarus' army attacked. Monsters, demons, demigods, magicians, the works. They descended on our defenseless camp, destroyed us _again_ in a short amount of time, and took us back to the HQ. Déjà vu, anyone? Yeah. Me too.

However: they took the seven, Will, Nico, and I up to a different room. In this room were, again, three plates of Greek Fire, on small tables surrounding nothing.

We were chained and pushed to a sitting position.

Then three demigods entered the room. One of them was Haley.

"Hey, guys," he said. "They got me. Not here to save your butts this time around."

One of the magicians floated him into the canter of the ring of tables.

"And apparently I'm gonna be hosting the essence of Tartarus, like Luke did in the first War."

I shot up. "NO!"

"SIT, BOY!" one of the demigods roared. "Sit in the presence of your lord."

When I refused, one of the magicians said a spell. An invisible hand cuffed me to the ground.

The top of the roof shimmered and vanished, revealing the swirling storm clouds just above. We had no time left. It was already eight at night. Tartarus was rising in four hours. For us, it might as well have been seconds.

An hour passed. There was nothing we could do. I just sat, thinking. The Usurper was nowhere to be found. Chiron knew of no one. I quickly ran through my head a list of people Jason knew, but there were so many in the Roman camp who may have usurped something or other. If not a crown, something else.

A glanced at him. He was apparently doing the same thing, running through his mind people he knew. But he didn't seem to be having much luck.

"Jason," I whispered.

"What?"

"Not just important things, but he may usurped anything?"

He nodded. He went back to thinking.

No chance for anything else.

"Where are the Hunters?" I asked Hazel, who was to my right.

She shrugged.

We had no backup then.

I looked over at Leo, who seemed to be trying to melt through his chains. His fire washed over the metal, heating it white-hot, but nothing happened to it.

Then I heard a vehicle outside. Or multiple vehicles. They pulled up, and I heard people start talking loudly. There seemed to be a lot of them. I felt a bit of hope; were these our backup?

But I couldn't see anything. The three demigods and three magicians in the room looked at each other nervously. A magician flew to the ceiling.

He dropped to the ground, seemingly terrified.

He said a word. I didn't understand it. Neither did Frank, Hazel, or Jason.

But Annabeth looked up, excited. "What?" she said.

The demigods and magicians ignored her. They talked to each other in quick, low voices, then glanced at us.

They filed out.

Annabeth looked at the rest of us.

"Well, Wise Girl?" Percy said impatiently. "What did he say?"

"He said _romans_ ," Annabeth said.

* * *

We looked at each other for a second. Then Leo said, "Well, that's great, but how do we get out?"

"Shoot fire out the ceiling," Annabeth said immediately.

He did. A column of fire roared out of the ceiling for about three seconds before he promptly keeled over and passed out.

But the Romans had seen it. Four soldiers climbed through the roof a minute later, swords ready. When they saw us, they ran over and hacked the chains off, which was a relief.

We explained to them quickly. One of them, Dakota, the only one any of us knew, said, "We'll take you to Reyna. Then you can explain how you got yourselves into this mess."

They took us to Reyna. She was standing at the vans, directing leaders of squads. Every now and then, another detachment of Romans would march into the building.

When she saw us, she visibly brightened. "Greetings, Praetor Zhang. Hazel. Jason. Piper. Perseus. Annabeth. Leo. Will. Nico—" she broke off by giving him a hug, which he grumbled about.

"And who is this?" she asked, staring at me.

"This is Jake Siaki," Jason said.

"Who is his godly parent?" she asked.

"He is not a demigod. He is mortal."

"What? Then how…"

A soldier came running up to her. "Praetor Reyna. Division 16 has been forced back to B-12."

"Division 22!" she shouted. "Follow Agreus to B-12!"

Agreus and a group of soldiers charged back into the building.

"They need us," she said. "I wish to know more of this Jake when we have finished. Speak to me of more urgent things, Jason."

He quickly explained the basics to her, reciting the prophecy ad telling her when Tartarus would rise.

She nodded. "I see. Three hours until the end of the world."

In the darkness, the only light was really from inside and the car headlights, but when we drew our weapons, the glow of Celestial Bronze and Imperial Gold cast a little bit more light on the ground.

She looked closely at me. "Can the mortal fight?" she asked Jason.

"He can…he's the—"

"I'm the champion of Nike," I said, tired of everyone acting like I wasn't there.

She nodded wearily. "We'll talk later," she said. She handed us all weapons out of the back of a truck. "Do you wish to stay together?" she asked.

Jason nodded.

She thought for the barest second, then she called over a legionnaire. "Pontus!" she said. "Take these ten to the second floor. Call Division 1 back, send them to G-54."

Pontus saluted. "Come with me," he said. We charged into the building, leaving Haley with Reyna. The front and entryway were clear, save monster dust and blood, but we could hear the sounds of fighting all over the building.

We followed him up a stairway to the second floor. A door hung open.

"In there," he said. "Any stragglers you meet in the area, send them outside to Reyna."

Jason saluted, and Pontus shouted into the maze of hallways, "Division 1! Back! Fall back!"

A shout answered him. A few moments later, a squad of six soldiers came charging down the hallways.

"Is that all of you?" Pontus asked.

The leader nodded.

"Go to Reyna."

They ran down the steps. After the other five had passed him, the leader said, "Who will hold the floor, sir?"

"These ten," Pontus said, waving his hand at us.

"That's not possible," the legionnaire said, shaking his head. "There must be a hundred monsters down there."

"It is Reyna's order," Pontus said. "And these seven are the ones of the prophecy. And _he_ —" he said, pointing at Nico, "is the son of Hades. Now go."

The two soldiers ran down the stairs. "Well," Will said. "Thanks for the introducton."

Nico punched him in the arm. "He was just stunned by your good looks, sunshine," he said.

Will rolled his eyes. "Come on, we've got monsters to kill."


	18. We Basically Destroy Rick's House

**Hey everyone! Here's the next chapter! In answer to madwamoose's yet-unanswered question: There are a total of twenty chappies for this story, and the sequel is already out, under the name Demigods: Days of Future Past. Yeah. So, read on, my good people! Please leave a review! Have fun!**

* * *

We charged down the nearest hallway, shouting a Greek battle cry. We came upon a group of telkhines, all waving ridiculously long spears. They squeaked and charged at us half-heartedly.

We cut the squadron into dust. None of them escaped, which was how we wanted it; if the other monsters in the floor hadn't been alerted to us yet, we wouldn't want them to be.

We kept running.

During the charges down the hall, we met plenty of monsters. We killed maybe fifty. All that we saw, were killed.

Finally, we came up to a door. The door said, 'Access to Third Floor is Denied.'

So, nine of us being ADHD, what do you think we did?

We checked out the third floor.

It seemed to be a sort of hallway, leading on and on. Seriously, Rick's house was bigger than it looked from the outside. But anyway, it passed a lot of doors. We checked them all, but they were locked.

We followed the hallway down for a long time, until it seemed like we'd gone a mile without doing anything.

Then a pack of six hellhounds came from the front, and a squadron of maybe twenty dracaenae came from behind. We were trapped.

Percy and Jason went for the hellhounds. Nico used his powers to swallow one of them into a shadow, then he turned to the dracaenae. Frank fired two arrows, each of which turned a snake woman to dust, then he slung his bow over his shoulder and drew his _spatha_.

The rest of us charged the dracaenae. Percy and Jason seemed to be fairly evenly matched with the five, rhino-sized, superpowered devil dogs, so the dracaenae took the full power of five of the Seven, the son of Hades, the son of Apollo, and the champion of Nike.

They didn't stand a chance. We cut them down within a minute, then turned and helped Percy and Jason with the hellhounds. We destroyed them too. Losses zero.

Then two grilled walls of Celestial Bronze slammed down on the ends of the hallway. The doors opened. About ten demigods and that many magicians marched in, faced us, and drew their weapons. From the other side of the hallway, maybe forty dracaenae came in, in a phalanx. The front rank of eight had long spears pointing forward, and the ones behind them were pointing their spears in the air. Each of them was covered in Celestial Bronze armor, and with a sword at their belt. Each demigod was covered in Celestial Bronze armor as well, with swords in their hands and shaded glass covering the front of their helmets.

The magicians fired spells at us. The dracaenae charged.

We fought well.

I faced the charging dracaenae. I lopped the head off the spear closest to me. While the next in line started to bring hers down, I ran forward. Before any of hem had time to react, I stabbed my sword through the dracaena's face plate, and she turned to dust.

As the next spear came down, I hacked my sword into the neckpiece of the next one. Although the Celestial Bronze of the armor protected her neck from the cut itself, the force of the blow knocked her sprawling into the dracaenae behind her. The phalanx broke into a bit of confusion. When I say a bit – well, anyway, the first rank got destroyed, and the second rank got shredded.

Then the demigods crashed into us.

Instantly, Frank put an arrow through one of their faceplates. But then there was no more time for bows and arrows. He drew his _spatha_ , and hacked through another faceplate, shattering it and cutting the demigod across the cheek.

Then he morphed into a rhino.

He charged down the hallway, scattering the demigods left and right. He crashed into the magicians, who lost their concentration for spells and slammed against the walls.

While the demigods were picking themselves up, Leo blasted fire at their armor, heating it to an uncomfortable level. One of them passed out, and three more retreated and ran through the door they'd come in.

I found myself matched up against a demigod, who had avoided Leo's fire and Frank's charge.

He stabbed at my chest. I spun my sword, knocking his blade to the side. When his momentum lost his balance, I slammed the sword down on his sword arm.

Of course the armor protected from cuts, but he howled and dropped his sword. While he was fumbling for it, I brought my sword down on his helmet. He dropped. I thought I'd knocked him out, but when I looked away, he jumped up, holding his sword awkwardly with his off arm.

I punched him in the face.

The unexpected move did two things: one, it hurt my off hand, and two, it made him lose control and take one step back.

That was all I needed. I swung my sword like a baseball bat, hitting him in the side of the head with all the force of a baseball swing, and with the added strength of pure Celestial Bronze.

He flew backward.

I looked around me. One more demigod had been destroyed and was lying on the floor. Three more were fighting Jason and Annabeth. The rest were lying on the ground, trying to get rid of their burning armor. And Frank was farther down the hallway, tossing magicians around as a gorilla.

Behind us, the phalanx of dracaenae was fighting the rest of the heroes. As I watched, Hazel slipped on a dropped spear haft and fell. The dracaena she'd been fighting raised her sword to slice through Hazel's chest.

I lunged forward and stabbed through her faceplate.

The snake woman dissolved into dust. Hazel got to her feet, thanking me. Another dracaena charged, and I blocked her sword and swung at her legs, hoping to knock her off her feet. But she brought her sword down, blocking mine. I stabbed at her stomach plate. She dodged and swung at my chest. I rolled back, then I kicked her in the gut.

She doubled over, opening her neck plate. I took her head.

The rest of the dracaenae charged. I took a spear in my right leg, and went down. Piper got hit on the head with a sword hilt, and went out cold. Leo burnt a dracaena to ashes, but then one sliced through his back. He screamed and went down. Nico blasted black energy into the middle of the dracaena ranks, killing four, but then two came at him from both sides. He cut through one of their chestplates with his Stygian Iron sword, but then the other one slammed her spear into his helmet. He fell.

Frank morphed back into a human for a second, but then a spell hit him in the back, stunning him. He fell, frozen.

Percy took a demigod sword cut to the arm, and then the flat of the sword to the head, in a glancing blow that knocked him out. Annabeth, fighting a dracaena with her knife, took a kick to the back. While she was stumbling, another one slammed the butt of her spear into her head.

Jason summoned a bolt of lightning into the demigod's chest that he was fighting, lifting the half-blood off his feet and rolling down the hall, but then a dracaena spear slammed into the small of his back. He howled and fell to his knees.

Two quick jabs to his head sent him sprawling.

As Will turned to see if he could help any of the fallen demigods, the last enemy half-blood standing slammed his sword hilt into his head.

At the same time, a dracaena punched Hazel in the side of her head, knocking her out and slamming her against the wall.

So it was just me.

The enemies circled me, but made no move to attack. "Mortal," the demigod said. "Surrender and your life shall be spared. Tartarus will have mercy on you."

"Never," I said. "Nike never surrenders."

"So be it," the half-blood said. "I admire your bravery."

He waved his hand, and I passed out.

* * *

I remember thinking, _Tartarus is rising!_ Then I came fully awake.

I was in the room where the roof lifts off. And the others were in the same places they had been. Only difference was, it was dark. Dark and raining.

The raindrops fell through the opening in the roof, splattering against the floor, making a little rhythm.

Any time any of them came close to a plate of Greek Fire, it disappeared in a hiss a few inches away from the green liquid.

Haley was floating, unconscious, a few feet off the ground. In the center of the triangle of Greek Fire plates.

Above him, the whirling storm winds howled, black, showing strongly even against the dark night sky.

Then Jason woke up with a little jump. "Where – ahh…"

He winced and sank back, rubbing his head.

Four demigods around the room drew their swords with an obvious scrape, showing us they were in control and alert.

Then the rest of the seven, Will, and Nico woke.

Nico looked around. "Well, that was a nice nap. What time is it?"

"Ten minutes till Lord Tartarus' rising," one of the half-bloods said.

"I still have time," Nico said, and shadow-traveled away.

Instantly, one of the demigods slammed his hand against a red alarm button. Sirens rang through the building. The door flew open and three of each: half-blood, magician, and Valhallan undead ran in. The guards explained to them what had happened, and they ran about doing certain things.

One of the magicians cast a spell. Instantly, every shadow in the room was illuminated by a sourceless light. There would be no more shadowtraveling from Nico, at least not into the room, the magician said.

Then the door opened again and three people entered. Two demigods in heavy battle armor, and a man in a dark cloak.

"Greetings, children," he said, in a voice that was way too familiar.

He lifted his hood.

* * *

 **Ooh... Who d'ya think it is... Although, I guess there're only a few people who it could be, really. R &R! Survive! Visit my new site at .com. Bye!**


	19. Aaaand Tartarus Is Awake

**Sorry, it's been a while, but here's the next update! Enjoy!**

* * *

"RICK!" we all gasped. Jason waved his hand and a lightning bolt blasted from the sky and into his chest, a blast that would have brought down a plane.

Rick just smiled. "The cloak's rubber, superboy. And don't even think about aiming for my head; we all know how _random_ electricity can get."

Percy waved his hand. Rainwater formed into a tight fist instantly, and slammed down at Rick. He put his hand up. The water hit his hand and dissipated, harmlessly soaking his cloak and the ground.

Rick laughed. "Magic trumps water, as I'm sure Midas would say. Alas, children, you're just too…"

Then Jason blasted him in the head.

The force of the electricity, enhanced by the conductive powers of water, blasted Rick right out of the room.

The two demigods charged at Jason, swordpoints facing him. Just as they were about to stab him through the gut, Hazel raised her hand. They floated. In surprise, they dropped their swords. Hazel promptly keeled over from exhaustion, but being disarmed stopped them for enough time. Jason kicked the closest one in the knee, knocking the half-blood down.

Jason grabbed a sword. He hacked at his chains; in a few seconds they were in pieces on the floor. He hacked the chains off Percy, who stood and grabbed the other sword. Jason slammed his blade into the nearest unarmed enemy half-blood, who sank to the floor.

Percy summoned the rainwater again, making a fist. He slammed the water into one of the magicians, knocking him out. Then the water hand grabbed another magician and flung it out of the roof.

Percy sighed and let the water fall onto himself. He jumped forward, slamming the hilt of the sword through the last stunned magician.

Jason, meanwhile, had summoned the winds. One of the demigods was flung into the air, screaming, then he landed on the floor with a crack. He went limp. The second one charged at Jason, swinging his sword. Jason blocked two strikes, parried a thrust, then brought the flat down on the man's head.

The last one turned and ran. Jason flicked his hand, and a gust of wind flung the half-blood back towards Jason.

He stabbed at the demigod's hand, knocking the sword out of his hand. Then he brought his hand back to punch the kid in the face, but Annabeth yelled, "Stop!"

He faltered. "Why?"

"Ethan?" Annabeth asked, nervously. "Why are you with them?"

"For revenge," Ethan said. "I didn't go to Elysium, Annabeth. You thought I would, didn't you? No. But at least, for my sacrifice in the end, one might think I could make Asphodel, huh? No. Not even that. The ever merciful Hades cast me into the Fields of Punishment. And when Tartarus got me out, I found that my request was for nothing. My sacrifice had been in vain. Nemesis didn't have a throne! None of the minor gods did!"

He laughed. And that laugh showed us that he was not fully sane.

"Percy Jackson, the hero of Olympus. Twice."

He would have said more, disparaging Percy's efforts, I'm sure, but Jason punched him out.

Percy, meanwhile, had defeated two of the Valhallan undead, and was fencing with the last one. Jason walked up behind him and slammed his sword hilt into his head.

He and Jason hacked the chains off the rest of us, and we stood, retrieved our weapons, and formed a line across the room.

Facing Haley.

* * *

He woke up a few minutes later. The time was eleven fifty-seven.

"What's going on?" he asked. "Where is…" he trailed off. He struggled, but it was no use.

"No matter what you do, though," he said. "Don't break this circle. Anyone who does will be sent to Tartarus."

We waited. What could we even do? The Usurper was nowhere to be found. And Tartarus rose in…one minute.

Riordan came back into the room. "Peace, friends," he said. "Hear these words. How many innocent mortals have been punished by the gods? How many lives ruined because the gods cared nothing for them? Hypnos has seen the wisdom of this and has joined our cause."

I glanced quickly down the line at the nine. They were all staring, stone-faced, at Rick. I hoped they weren't really considering his offer.

Half a minute left.

"Well, no matter, my young demigods," Rick said, speaking fast so as to get the words out before Tartarus possessed Haley. "Your resistance means nothing any more. The end is near."

"You're starting to sound like one of those kooks who go around in trash cans waving signs," Percy said. "Repent! Repent! For the end is near!"

"Ah, Percy," Rick said. "What will your bravery do for you when you're trapped in Tartarus' breastplate? In eternal agony? Hmm? Think well on this for your last few seconds."

He turned back to Haley. "You've served your purpose well," he said. "Now let the rising begin!"

A tendril of smoke curled down from the ceiling. It touched Haley.

He screamed.

"Lord Tartarus!" Rick called. "Welcome to the overworld!"

Haley floated to the floor. When he opened his mouth to speak, the voice was different. Incredibly powerful and ancient. Deep and thunderous.

"Hello, demigods."

Percy dropped to his knees. "NO!"

Annabeth grabbed her temples. "Tartarus! Bob…" She collapsed too.

"Now," Tartarus said. "The Usurper, as I recall was the hopeful line in the prophecy. However: the Usurper can do nothing now, as the Usurper does not know who they are."

He smiled, his mouth stretching too wide for Haley's face. Blood started to trickle from his open mouth.

Jason pointed at Tartarus. A lightning bolt shot through the sky, hitting Tartarus right in the back. The force was enough to make the rest of us stumble, but Tartarus didn't even move.

Nico waved his hand. A wave of darkness rose from the ground and hit Tartarus with the strength of a tidal wave. The energy was absorbed into Tartarus and seemed only to make him stronger.

Percy put both hands out. A concentrated column of water shot from the sky, slamming into Tartarus. It could have knocked a hole in concrete, but when it touched Tartarus it turned to steam.

Hazel waved her hand from where she lay on the floor. A chorus of _pop_ s sounded, and pieces of iron and precious metals shot from around the room, peppering Tartarus like gunshots. They bounced off him harmlessly.

Frank fired an arrow. An explosive one. When it connected with the ground at Tartarus' feet, the primordial raised his hand, and the plume of fire was sucked in like a vacuum cleaner.

Leo put his hands together and fired a white-hot burst of fire at Tartarus. It was strong enough to turn steel to liquid, and concentrated to laser-strength. It curled around Tartarus like a cocoon, and when he turned off the spray, Tartarus was standing there unharmed.

Will snapped his fingers. A beam of solar fire shot from the sky, but it bounced off of Tartarus' head. He turned, reflecting the laser onto a wall. The wall started to burn, and the decorative weapons on the walls fell to the floor. Will shut off the power.

Tartarus waved his hand lazily. An invisible force flung us all back.

What did you expect us to do? We ran.

* * *

 **Only two chappies left! Please review. I love reviews. Survive!**


	20. I Die Painfully

**The flag is up... and away they go. Here's the next chappie! R &R!**

* * *

The only problem with running through the house was that we hadn't the slightest idea where we were going. So…

We got lost.

The first stairwell we came to, we thundered down it. The sounds of the Roman legionnaires fighting was rather faint, but we tried to follow the sounds.

We came out on the whole other side of the house, which was unfortunate.

"What do we do?" Percy asked Annabeth. "Tartarus…"

"Tartarus," Nico agreed. "But we can't beat him face-to-face. That's obvious."

"Well, what if we do the same thing we did to Gaea?" Piper asked. "We get him off the ground, no longer connected to Tartarus, and zap him."

"It's not gonna work," Annabeth said. "His power's too strong. There's no way."

"We can try," Jason said. "I'm gonna lift him off the ground with the winds. We'll all hit him together. Everything you have. Fire, solar lasers, shadows. Everything. I'll get some lightning too."

"Tell the legion," Frank said. "They can get ready to shoot him down."

"That…won't work," Annabeth repeated. "Tartarus is different from Gaea."

No one listened. Frank turned into a hummingbird and flew over to the legion. The rest of the demigods ate ambrosia and got ready.

Then the top of the house blew away. Tartarus floated in the air above us, lifted by Jason's wind servants. The legion launched flaming arrows and loads of Greek fire.

The demigods on this side used their powers. Tartarus was being covered in the power, fire and lasers, Mist and shadows, lightning and explosions.

But he wasn't even being touched. Nico shook his head. "This is too much power… I can't hold…"

He collapsed. Then Hazel fell down.

Tartarus was covered by a blue haze that he had created. It acted as a shield, and nothing we were doing was touching him.

"This is useless," Percy said. He waved his hand and a fist of rainwater slammed into the shield. "We can't do anything to him. We can't even… Ha!… touch him."

Jason nodded. A last lightning bolt shot onto the shield, and then he dropped to the ground. The wind dropped Tartarus, and he fell into the house, making a noise like thunder where he fell.

I got the feeling the house was gonna need some repairs.

"So that's it?" Percy asked. "What else do we have?"

"Not even nuclear weapons would kill him," Annabeth muttered. "Nothing can touch him, since he was a primordial and all the gods are related to him…we can't touch him because of the ancient law against killing family…Gaea didn't count because we put he to sleep. We didn't kill Kronos either…but it wasn't by force, it was by the prophecy…"

"I'm not following this," Percy said. "Could you make yourself clearer?"

"More clear," Annabeth corrected automatically. "Only if it wasn't family. We could put him to sleep…but he doesn't want to… Piper can't make him tired… Only someone who isn't related to the gods and a Usurper could defeat Tartarus. This is impossible."

"Who isn't related to the gods?" Percy asked. "What do you mean by that?"

"It can't be a mortal…" Annabeth continued. "A mortal couldn't even get close to Tartarus without disintegrating from his aura… Effectively, Tartarus has made it impossible to kill him."

"So, say that all again," Percy suggested.

"We can't kill him, because that would be killing a family member. Greeks hate that. So we need someone not related to the gods, i.e. a mortal. But mortals can't get close enough to Tartarus to do anything, because they'd disintegrate. Basically, it's impossible to…"

She stopped.

"Jake," she said. "It's you."

"Wow," I said. "I'm gonna sound like Percy right now, but… What?"

"You have the blessing of Nike and you're a mortal. You can defeat Tartarus."

"Wait, wait, wait," I said. "What about the whole Usurper thing in the prophecy? Hmm? I haven't usurpered a thing in my life, I swear."

"Usurped," she corrected. "And it's your name. Gah, vlacas. I'm an idiot…I didn't see it. Your name means Usurper."

"In what language does Jake mean a guy who knocks a king off and becomes the big guy?" I asked.

"Hebrew," she said. "In the Bible, I think. Capital-G God and stuff. Christianity. I don't know. But it's definitely you. You have to do this."

"Great," I grumbled. "If I don't come back in two minutes, the world ends. Byeeeeee!"

I walked back into the house to fight Hell.

* * *

That was, officially, the weirdest fight I've ever been in. I won't go into detail, but let me just say that in involved pool balls, a fish, and two copies of the _Mona Lisa_.

Why didn't Tartarus vaporize me offhand? I have no idea. But it may have something to do with godly-mortal interactions mixed with the blessing of Nike crossed with the fact that I literally didn't fight him until the last second. So maybe he couldn't attack first…?

Lit-trally. Danisnotonfire, great guy.

Anyway. The fight ended with a last pool ball being flung at m head by a mysterious wind, and then I jumped forward and stabbed him in the chest.

Did I kill him?

Nope.

He grimaced, yanked the sword out, and grabbed me around the neck. "No more holding back," he promised. "I'll just kill you nice and quick."

Then he took my sword – my sword! – and cut my throat.

I was dead. Yay. I was in DOA recording studios, and Charon was waiting.

"Hello, spirit," he said.

I walked up to the desk. "Hey," I said. "Do you mind…ah…letting me out?"

"Letting you out?" he laughed. "No, kid. You're dead."

"Yeah, I know," I said. "But I kinda sorta need to get back there right now else the world and everything godly goes down the drain. Tartarus, you know?"

He nodded, pretending to be sympathetic. "Oh, I understand. I even believe you. But I'll be your friend for a moment, and tell you, as your friend, I don't care about you or your problems."

He laughed again and sat back. "I've been wanting to say that. But anyway, the answer is: no. Hades would have my head, Tartarus would vaporize me, lots of bad things would happen to me. So, you're just going to have to wait here."

"Well, don't I at least get Elysium?" I asked.

"Ah, well," he shrugged. "It all depends, you know, on whether or not the judges think you died honorably. So…I don't know and I don't care."

"When does the ferry leave," I asked.

"Why do you care? You're not leaving. Not without money."

"I have money," I said. "In fact, I'll give you extra if you let us leave right now."

"What do you mean by 'extra'?" he asked, a greedy glint in his eye.

I took the four drachmas Percy had given me the first day in camp, and slapped them down on the table. "There you go," I declared. "Four golden drachma."

"Let's go," he said. "I was just leaving."

* * *

Guess what? I got Elysium. Yay. The judges said that I had displayed great bravery and honor for my efforts in the war, and I deserved Elysium.

I didn't stay long. I gave the demigods my greetings, and went to the Lethe.

Charon was there, ready to take me back. "Hello, mortal," he said. "Ready to go back to another insignificant life?"

"My last life wasn't," I said. "And maybe this will be better."

"Well," he said, "I would wish you luck. Maybe."

He gestured to the Lethe. "Go ahead," he said. "Take a swim."

I unbuckled my sword. "Well," I declared. "Here I go. Tell Nico where I went. I want to know if the world has ended yet."

I jumped in.

* * *

 **Dang. Did you really think I was gonna leave myself in the Underworld? No bloody way, mate.**

 **Anyway, only one more chapter to go! Please review. Or follow. Or fave. Thanks!**

 **Survive!**


	21. Another Year Over, A New One Just Begun

**This is the last chappie! I'm so excited, and not, at the same time. R &R, my good people!**

* * *

"Welcome to the Smithsonian Museum," the overhead voice said.

I looked around. The place was pretty cool, no matter how many times I came here.

"Where will we go?" Haley asked me. "You wanna just go and wait for the girls?"

"Sure," I said. "I just wanna go look at the Greek section."

He rolled his eyes. "You're lame, dude. It's a bunch of pots."

"And swords," I said. "Weapons and armor and pictures. I was probably a Greek warrior in a previous life."

"You were probably a nerd in your previous life," he said. "A Greek geek."

"Just sit down," I said.

"No way," he answered. "If I let you go to that stuff alone, you'll be slobbering all over the cases, and taking notes, and getting all heart-eyed at the friskies and stuff."

"Frescoes," I said.

"Yeah. That's what I said."

I shrugged. "So are you coming or staying?"

"Let's go," he said, pulling me along. "Let's go see the amazing Greek rubble and pots. I'm so excited, cause this is how I want to spend my weekend."

I shook my head.

* * *

"This was in Athens, like two-thousand years ago," I said. "It was a grave marker for a rich merchant."

"It's a fricking rectangle," he said.

"This was a vat for wine," I said. "It was used three thousand years ago, in the king of Chalcydon's palace."

"Shards!" he declared. "Glorious shards!"

"This was a mural on a tomb, for a supposed son of…Zeus…" I said, trailing off. "Son of Zeus."

"It's a…it's a bunch of squares," he said, squinting. "Amazing."

He wandered off. "What's this?" he asked, pointing to a jar.

"It's a storage jar," I said. "They called it a _pithos_. It was used for wine and stuff like that."

"So it's basically a wine bottle," he said. "A broken wine bottle that the psychos used to stab each other. The Greek drunks."

"Whatever," I said. "Let's go."

We walked back to the lobby.

* * *

"Hey, look," he said, shaking me. "It's a pithy. Pithas. The psycho wine bottle thingy."

We were on a city sidewalk. There wouldn't be a _pithos_ out here.

Right?

"Dude, look," he said. "It's right there. Against the wall."

I looked. He was right. There was one. And it looked real.

"Is it…for a museum?" I asked.

The jar was just there. Nobody even gave it a second glance.

"It's not broken," he said. "The thing's totally perfect. Let's sell it. It's probably worth more."

"It's probably a fake," I protested, but I followed him over to the _pithos_.

It was covered with pictures. It showed another _pithos_ , open, with a bunch of demons flying out. A girl was holding the picture _pithos_.

"It's like Pandora's jar," I said.

"Jar? Dude, it was a box," he said.

"Box. Right. Never mind."

"Let's take it," he said.

"Leave it," I said. "Someone probably left it here for a second. They're gonna come back for it."

"Whatever."

We walked away.

We saw it again. It was later. The _pithos_ was on the hood of my car.

"It's the psycho bottle," he said. "Okay, that's really weird. And disturbing."

"Someone's following us," I said.

"Just put it in the car and let's go," he said. "We'll take it to the museum."

"Okay. This is creepy, though."

"Hey, you have a stalker," he said, shoving me. "Maybe it's a girl."

"Maybe you can shut up," I said.

We put the jar into the car. It was heavy.

Well, that's what Haley said. I didn't want to touch it.

I dropped him off and drove home, with the _pithos_ in my trunk.

When I got back to my house, I opened the trunk. The _pithos_ was sitting there, completely innocent looking and safe. I picked it up.

 _Demigods._

 _Jake._

 _Gods._

 _Celestial bronze._

 _Monsters._

 _Pandora's_ pithos _._

 _Olympus._

 _Tartarus._

 _Golden drachmas._

 _Charon._

 _Lethe._

 _Haley._

 _Camp Half-Blood._

I screamed. The memories of my last life came flooding back into my brain. I dropped the _pithos_ back into the trunk and dropped to my knees, clutching my head.

The memories of everything I had done before came back. I remembered Percy, Jason, Nico, Tartarus. Rick. Everyone.

I remembered Tartarus.

I woke up in Camp. Chiron was standing next to my bed. "Hello, Jake," he said.

"Hello," I answered.

"Welcome back from the dead and the mortals," he said. "We have a lot to talk about."

* * *

Tartarus had been sent back to Taratarus when the 'blood from the Usurper' splashed over him. My blood combined with the knife in his chest had destroyed him.

I got back together with the rest of the team. They were all in their thirties now. Thalia and I mock them for being 'old'.

Now I'm pretty good friends with them. I talk to them a lot, hang out at Camp a lot. Go on a few quests. I'm a champion of Nike again.

So now, whenever I'm in California, I'll call Percy and ask for a nice earthquake free trip. Fun.

Anyway, the rest of them are going to the fireworks. I'll go too. May the gods be with you!

Asfalí taxídia kai oi theoí na sas kratísei asfalí.

* * *

 **Did anyone like it? Hmmm? I'll never know if you don't review or fave! Please?**

 **Anyway, I hope you enjoyed. Special thanks to Marcus Bond, madwamoose, WiseGirlGeek, xXBeeboXx, DrakonOl21195, and EeveelutionsAreAwesome for your support! Thanks for sticking with me the whole time!**

 **Survive!**


End file.
